This summer, four years after Bausch’s sudden death, dance educator and former company member Lutz Förster will take over as artistic director of the provincial German company that Bausch made world-famous. He is not a choreographer, and he says that “there will be no new productions until 2015.”
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Conductor Jean-François Paillard Dead At 85
The man whose recording of Pachelbel’s Canon became a worldwide hit (and the theme music for hundreds of local public television and radio pledge drives during the 1970s and ’80s), Paillard and the chamber orchestra that carried his name made more than 300 albums, mostly on the Erato label, and won dozens of industry awards.
Barcelona Plans ‘Museum Mountain’ Complex
The city and regional governments have announced a grand project – “when economic conditions permit” – to create a district along the lines of Berlin’s Museum Island on Montjuïc, the city’s mountain park.
Conductor Sues Madrid’s Opera House For Slander
Jesús López Cobos, the former music director of the Teatro Real, is suing the theater and its artistic director, Gérard Mortier, for a formal apology and €50,000 in damages because Mortier allegedly told an Austrian newspaper that he declined to renew López Cobos’s contract. (The maestro says he made the decision to retire from the position.)
Former Gergiev Foundation Chief Indicted For Embezzling €6 Million
Igor Zotov, a former director of the foundation created by conductor and Mariinsky Theater head Valery Gergiev to fund the Moscow Easter Festival and St. Petersburg’s White Nights Festival, has been charged with stealing 245 million rubles ($8 million) to buy six luxury apartments in Moscow.
Vladimir Malakhov To Leave Helm Of Berlin State Ballet
The Russian-born former ABT star will step down as the company’s director in summer 2014. In a Q&A, he indicates that the city’s culture secretary, André Schmitz, would not renew his contract and wants to replace him with someone more oriented toward contemporary dance. (At least, Malakhov observes, he gets to leave with his face intact.)
Valery Gergiev To Be Munich Philharmonic’s Next Chief Conductor
Pending approval next week by the city council, the workaholic Russian maestro will take up his new post in 2015. Gergiev will succeed Lorin Maazel, who will then be 85 years old.
Brazilian Conductor Beaten By Spanish Police In Alleged Racial Incident
Israel de França, a violinist in Granada’s main orchestra and a local conductor, alleges that he and a (white) friend were sitting in a Granada bar on Dec. 23 when he was detained by city police and beaten. The police department maintains that the bar’s owner called them about two patrons arguing noisily and that they addressed the situation without violence.
Dutch Broadcasting’s Jazz Orchestra Saved From Oblivion
Just last week, the Metropole Orchestra, a hybrid pops-orchestra-and-jazz-big-band, had been told that its state funding was to be eliminated and it would have to shut down by next August. But the new coalition government has provided a €7 million grant to support the Metropole to 2017, though the ensemble will now have to earn or raise about half its budget on its own.
Daniel Barenboim Founds Music Academy For The Middle East
Following in the mold of his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based ensemble of young musicians from Israel and the Arab states, the conductor and Mideast peace activist is establishing a conservatory-cumacademic institution for up to 60 resident fellows from the Near East. The school will be housed in a former warehouse for the Berlin State Opera, where Barenboim is artistic director.