The concertmaster of Opéra National de Bordeaux, Matthieu Arama, is moving to Sydney to take the hot seat at Opera Australia. The job has been unsettled since Jun Yi Ma left two years ago after a players’ vote of no confidence. His place was taken by Acting Concertmaster Huy-Nguen Bui but that has not worked out in any permanent fashion. Matthieu will find it’s all to play for. The post Opera Australia finds a French concertmaster appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

With David Pickard’s departure as Proms director, control of the season reverts to the head of Radio 3, Sam Jackson. Hannah Donat, Artistic Producer of the Proms for the last seven years, has been promoted to Director of Artistic Planning. This restores the natural order. Pickard was hired nine years ago after the BBC DG, Tony Hall, installed as head of R3 a former civil servant, Alan Davey, with no programming knowhow. The post BBC recasts top team at Proms appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

Dissatisfaction with the Cleveland Institute of Music has now boiled over into a parents revold. Here’s what they tell slippedisc.com: Dear Mr Lebrecht and Slippedisc, We are a group of concerned parents of Cleveland Institute of Music students. As you know, CIM has been in a downward spiral for the last few years under its current leadership, but especially this past academic year with the resignation of trumpet faculty member Michael Sachs in the fall, the 91 percent faculty vote of no confidence in President Paul Hogle and Provost Scott Harrison, the mid-semester termination of viola facult ..read more

There is no room for Sir Simon Rattle in the orchestra’s 24/25 season – perhaps, with typical senisitivty, they are allowing the former chief conductor to bed in with his new band in Munich. Other highlights: Artist in Residence is pianist Seong-Jin Cho. Wolfgang Rihm, Composer in Residence. Three conductors make Berlin Phil debuts: Marin Alsop, Joana Mallwitz and Kazuki Yamada. Kirill Petrenko will conduct 50 of the season’s 128 concerts. The post Berlin Phil drops Rattle appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

The violinist Daniel Lozakovich was launched with great fanfare by Deutsche Grammophon in his early teens. This week, aged 23, he signed for Warner Classics. He has also changed agents a few times. The post Life after the yellow label appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

Laufey  This keeps happening to me. I keep coming across artists I’ve never heard of who have become famous and highly successful while my attention was elsewhere. One is Laufey, half Icelandic, half Chinese, brought to my attention by my friend Harvey who says she is the hot new thing, playing three sold-out concerts at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco and gaining traction as a major attraction. Laufey’s music bridges the gap between jazz and cabaret, aiming at younger, mainstream audiences. Her sophomore album, Bewitched, broke Spotify’s all-time streaming record f ..read more

Tonight’s programme for James Ehnes playing the Schumann violin concerto contains this invitation: We are very happy for you to take photographs and short video clips at our concerts, but please refrain from recording the whole performance. We do ask that you are mindful of disturbing artists and other audience members and therefore ask that you dim the brightness on your phone, take pictures and videos during applause breaks and do not use your flash. They have plainly learned nothing from the Bostridge incident. The post CBSO invites you to disturb another soloist appeared first on Slippedis ..read more

Latest leaps on the merry-go-round: – Vasily Petrenko has signed on again as music director with the Royal Philharmonci Orcestra, taking him to 2030. – Eva Ollikainen is stepping down as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of Iceland Symphony Orchestra in 2026. – Jonathan Sells will replace John Eliot Gardiner at Leipzig’s Bachfest in June. – The Festival Puccini at Torre del Lago has listed Pier Luigi Pizzi as ‘Artistic Director working with Conductor Jan Latham Koenig’. – Christopher Lichtenstein is to be Generalmusikdirektor in Osnabrück The post Maestro moves, maestro stays appeared firs ..read more

The Solti award-winning conductor Roderick Cox has been appointed music director of Opéra Orchestre national Montpellier Occitanie from SDeptember. He succeeds Michael Schønwandt, who stepped down in 2023 after eight years. The post US conductor lands French post appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

The unflashy Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra woke up this morning to an extra $10 million in the company kitty. It’s the biggest gift they have ever seen. It comes from Stefan Persson, owner of the Swedish clothing chain H&M. The orchestra are just settling into life with a new chief conductor, Ryan Bancroft. The executive and artistic director Stefan Forsberg says he can now retfre after 21 years ‘with a smile on my face’. The post Orchestra receives fashion blast appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more