"As Marin Alsop leaves the Baltimore Symphony after 14 years, the field is taking a step backward: 25 major American orchestras, no female music directors."
Anthony Tommasini
Fellows
Taiwanese American conductor Mei-Ann Chen officially takes on the post of principal conductor of recreation - Grosses Orchester Graz at Styriarte beginning this fall, making her the first female Asian conductor to serve as chief conductor of the ensemble. She is also one of the first female Asian conductors to hold such a position with an Austrian orchestra
The new five-year post with recreation - Grosses Orchester Graz at Styriarte is Ms. Chen’s first major European appointment. In addition to her role with Styriarte, Mei-Ann Chen is music director of the MacArthur Award-winning Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011, making her the first Asian female conductor to lead the orchestra as its second music director, and is the first-ever artistic partner of Houston’s ROCO (River Oaks Chamber Orchestra) (since 2019).
This new podcast explores the limits between music styles and why we create so many labels to define them. Maestro Arrieche will be interviewing iconic figures from both classical and pop music, to find where the boundaries are and how to break through them.
Accepted and to be screened at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival:
The Conductor, directed by Bernadette Wegenstein, written by Bernadette Wegenstein and Stefan Fauland. Produced by Annette Porter. (United States) - World Premiere, Feature Documentary. In this exhilarating documentary, Leonard Bernstein’s protégée Marin Alsop reveals how she smashed the glass ceiling to become an internationally renowned conductor.
The Opéra national de Lorraine announced the appointment of Polish conductor Marta Gardolińska as its next Music Director. The three-year appointment commences from the 2021/22 season and will see Marta conduct at least ten weeks in Nancy, including symphonic concerts.
The Lexington Philharmonic is proud to announce the appointment of Kelly Corcoran as Interim Artistic Advisor. The Interim Artistic Advisor is a new position created to provide artistic guidance during the 2020-2021 season and beyond, until LexPhil is able to safely resume the Music Director & Conductor Search.
“See Me: A Global Concert”, a film project conceived by conductor Marin Alsop and the World Economic Forum, spans the individual to the global. As Alsop puts it, “it is a journey, from one voice playing solo Bach, to many voices singing a new piece by Reena Esmail, to hundreds of voices celebrating our beautiful planet in Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony. It’s a journey that we hope brings comfort, joy, and most importantly, hope”.
The film was created in conjunction with female conductors including TACF’s Jeri Johnson and Valentina Peleggi and young musicians from across the globe, including Chen Lin who captured the connection between the socially-distanced performers of the NCPA Orchestra in Beijing.
In a coast to coast celebration, Classical Movements created the Hope & Harmony Ensemble of 14 brass and percussion musicians, in partnership with some of the finest orchestras in the country. Featuring the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, LA Phil, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Peabody Conservatory, Penn State School of Music, The South Asian Symphony Foundation, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and Utah Symphony.
Learn more about the project at www.classicalmovements.com/fanfare.
Marzena Diakun will be the new artistic director and head of the Orchestra and Choir of the Community of Madrid (Orcam), the Orcam Foundation announced on December 17, 2020. Trained in her native Poland, in Austria, Switzerland and the United States, Diakun has developed her professional career mainly in Poland and France, where she is the first guest conductor of the Paris Chamber Orchestra this season.
On September 18, La Maestra announced Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship alumna Rebecca Tong as the winner of the inaugural 2020 Competition & Academy for Young Women Conductors. Participants in the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship earned three of the top six spots at the La Maestra Competition. Behind first prize winner Rebecca Tong were Lina Gonzalez-Granados (third prize) and Hollie Hyun Choe (final six). In addition to winning first prize, Rebecca Tong also won the Arte Prize as well as the French Concert Halls and Orchestras Prize
By: Eleanor Beardsley, NPR. "In the orchestra world, conducting and music directing are still male-dominated fields. In the United States, less than 10% of orchestras are directed by women. In Europe, the figure for major orchestras is less than 6%. Founders of La Maestra, a Paris-based organization, set out to change that by promoting the talent of budding female conductors in their very first competition, held in mid-September. Out of more than 200 applicants, 12 female conductors from across four continents competed for three top prizes, including cash, mentoring and a series of concerts conducting orchestras in France and abroad."
