Exit Statement from Chloe van Soeterstede, TACF Fellow 2019-2021
It was a privilege to be chosen by Marin Alsop as the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellow for 2019-2021. My tenure was full of sharp turns and novel challenges due to the Covid pandemic which took hold in 2020. From the very start I felt welcomed into the Taki Alsop Fellowship family, exchanging emails, thoughts, and advice with our community of conductors. Marin has always been there for me when I needed her support, when I had questions or doubts. When we could not meet in person during the most restrictive part of the pandemic lockdown, we instead met quite regularly on Zoom for mentoring...
Good Morning America
It's still rare to see a woman conduct an opera — and rarer still to see a pregnant woman conducting an opera. That's what made Russian American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya's December 2021 all the more eye-catching.
The Chicago Opera Theater music director conducted the opening of the Mark Adamo opera "Becoming Santa Claus" in Chicago on Dec. 11. Five days later, she gave birth. And three days after that, she was back at the podium to conduct the closing of "Becoming Santa Claus."
"When I started conducting, people told me that women shouldn't be doing this job because of its physical demands," she wrote in a Twitter thread on Wednesday. "They never could explain to me what exactly those extreme demands might be — they certainly aren't much compared to childbirth!"
Marin Alsop has been named the Aspen Institute’s Harman/Eisner Artist-in-Residence for 2021-22. In the role, she will draw on her wealth of experience as an artist and thought leader to engage in critical discussions about key social and civic issues, and participate in programming and other activities in Aspen, New York, Washington, D.C., and nationwide. The Aspen Institute’s Arts Program focuses on connecting artists and citizens in addressing some of society’s most complex problems. The first event is a live discussion with former 2020-21 Harman/Eisner Artist-in-Residence Oskar Eustis as a part of the “Conversations with Great Leaders” series.
To learn more about the Aspen Institute Arts Program and the Harman/Eisner Artist in Residence Program, click here.
"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
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.
