As medici.tv’s Chief Content Officer I spend a lot of time thinking about classical music—and a lot of time on the internet. Here’s my selection of the top five news items you need to see this week if you want to stay in the know.
Mission Impossible theme composer Lalo Schifrin passed away (BBC)
Lalo Schifrin, the Argentine composer behind one of the world’s most recognizable melodies passed away this week at the age of 93. In the days since, Hollywood giants, including the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, have turned to social media to pay tribute to “the composer who turned every beat into a thrill, and every silence into suspense.” Schifrin studied classical piano as a child in Buenos Aires before moving first to Paris to play jazz, and later to the United States, where he became a prolific composer for film and television.
Enjoy this vintage performance of Schifrin performing many of his own compositions — including of course the iconic Mission Impossible theme! — and a selection of jazz standards in this 1994 concert in Munich.
Touring Germany’s vast network of small (and mighty!) opera houses (The New York Times)
The New York Times published a fascinating in-depth feature on Germany’s numerous “minor but generously subsidized theaters”, who, bolstered and emboldened by state funding, champion a more experimental repertoire. Visits to a selection of these theaters serving smaller cities and towns revealed daring, challenging programming performed by up-and-coming singers and instrumentalists, providing crucial learning opportunities for both young artists—one soprano described it as “a crash course in how to be an opera singer”—and for local audiences
Tech CEO pays $400,000 to conduct the Toronto Symphony (Ludwig van)
78-year-old tech entrepreneur Mandle Cheung, an auto-didact who took up the baton just seven years ago, crossed off one of his bucket list items this week: conducting a top-tier professional symphony orchestra in a performance of Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 2. Local press Ludwig van Toronto says that despite minor issues, the orchestra performed beautifully, but this unusual pay-to-play performance has led to significant debate amongst TSO musicians and more broadly in the classical world: should professional orchestras really be renting out their podium to amateur musicians?
Lang Lang announces Summer Piano Intensive in Saudi Arabia (The Violin Channel)
Superstar pianist Lang Lang announced a new collaboration with the Saudi Music Commission that will see him teach and perform at a month-long summer intensive in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The 30 participating pianists will study with a team of pedagogues selected and led by Lang himself, including teachers from prestigious institutions like the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music.
Public voting is open for Gramophone magazine’s Orchestra of the Year (Gramophone)
The Gramophone Awards are one of the most prestigious events of the classical calendar. While most of the prizes are selected by the magazine’s editorial board, one is decided by public vote: Orchestra of the Year, awarded to an ensemble who has produced an exceptional recording in the past year. You have just about six weeks to vote—don’t miss your chance!
