Osmo Vänskä Threatens to Resign

Osmo Vänskä Threatens to Resign

Minnesota Orchestra music director Osmo Vänskä has tightened the screws on the dispute between players and management, threatening to resign if the lockout is not resolved soon. In a letter to the orchestra's board sent on Tuesday, he says the dispute has already cost the orchestra several of its players and concertmaster Erin Keefe had told him she has been offered positions elsewhere. No concertmaster, no music director, Vänskä told the board, stating: "my own position as music director may become unsustainable." The tipping point for Vänskä will be if the orchestra loses four planned concerts at Carnegie Hall starting November.

Now Minnesota loses its principal clarinet

We hear that Burt Hara, principal clarinet of the locked out Minnesota Orchestra, has won the audition for Associate Principal Clarinet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It will mean a sunnier life for Burt and his family, but it’s another sickening for Minnesota, which is shedding more and more of its best players in the unending lockout. More

Cellist Raphaël Merlin has instrument seized at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport

Customs officers at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, seized Raphaël Merlin’s cello on the morning of 27 April. The cellist was returning to his native France after a US tour with the Ébène Quartet. He has still not recovered the 1680 Andrea Guarneri instrument (pictured, with Merlin), which he has played for the past four and a half years.  More

Jonas Kaufmann Gets (Another) Opera Award

U.K.'s Opera magazine has jumped on the annual award bandwagon, with Oper Frankfurt and tenor Jonas Kaufmann among the first recipients, for "opera company" and "male singer," respectively. The awards, at a gala dinner in London, are to be known as "the Operas" and were established by the magazine's editor, John Allison, and British businessman Harry Hyman. There are 23 categories in all, with "accessibility" going to the Metropolitan Opera, presumably for the HD initiative. Among other winners were the Cape Town Opera in the chorus category, Salzburg as opera festival, Antonio Pappano as conductor, George Benjamin's Written on Skin as world premiere, Nina Stemme as female singer, and the MET Orchestra for opera orchestra.

Among the ten jurors, the majority of them male, were San Francisco Opera Artistic Director David Gockley; Salzburg Easter Festival Managing Artistic Director Peter Alward; Joan Matabosch, artistic director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu; Guus Mostart, manager of the Nationale Reisopera in Enschede; and Brit journalists Hugh Canning, Rupert Christiansen, and Andrew Clements.

Watch: Boston Symphony Musicians Pay Tribute to Marathon Bombing Victims

Boston Symphony assistant principal viola Cathy Basrak and principal violist Steven Ansell play in marathon gear (Stu Rosner)

With security in Symphony Hall increased in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, the Boston Symphony Orchestra paid tribute to the victims of the attacks and their families during its concert Thursday night.

A video supplied to WQXR by the BSO shows the orchestra's assistant principal violist, Cathy Basrak, who ran the marathon on Monday, introducing the concert from the stage. Wearing her marathon jacket and a running watch over her black evening gown, Basrak reads a quote from Leonard Bernstein and leads a moment of silence.  More

iTunes Celebrates a Decade, Faces New Challenges

NEW YORK (AP) -- When Apple launched its iTunes music store a decade ago amid the ashes of Napster, the music industry - reeling from the effects of online piracy - was anxious to see how the new music service would shake out.

"The sky was falling, and iTunes provided a place where we were going to monetize music and in theory stem the tide of piracy. So, it was certainly a solution for the time," said Michael McDonald, who co-founded ATO Records with Dave Matthews and whose Mick Management roster includes John Mayer and Ray LaMontagne.  More

Janos Starker, A Master Of The Cello, Dies At 88

Cellist Janos Starker has died at 88, ending a life and career that saw him renowned for his skills as a soloist, his prodigious work with orchestras, and his commitment to teaching. Starker was born in Budapest in 1924; his path to becoming an international star included surviving life in a Nazi labor camp.

Prolific as well as talented, Starker's recording career spanned more than 50 years. His discography numbers more than 165 recordings, according to his .

"Among his most acclaimed discs are the Bach cello suites and the Dvořák concerto, both recorded for Mercury Living Presence," reports , "and the 1992 Grammy Award winning recording of the Bach suites for RCA."  More