Tonight is my first appearance as a music communicator in Hamburg. Pretty excited to present an introduction to an orchestral concert in the Laeiszhalle, featuring the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and violinist Christian Tetzlaff as a soloist. If you feel in the mood for Mozart, Beethoven, and Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night, it’d be just awesome to have your company! Introduction 7 pm at the Recital Hall, concert 8 pm.
General
New Medtner Newsletter
I have started a Medtner newsletter. The idea is to send information and updates on events, publications, recent recordings, and other developments related to Nikolai Medtner—to be issued from time to time, presumably 2–3 numbers per year. Let me know if you want to subscribe. I will also be grateful if you provided me with information to include in the following issues!
Limitations of Vocal Repertoire
This has been an issue to me ever since I started observing classical music: Singers tend to ignore a large portion of the repertoire composed for them. While common practice of vocalists seems to be limited to music from a period of some 250 years, most Renaissance, early Baroque, and 20th-century music is neglected. Read my full complaint on the Hello Stage blog.
Letter to Music Educators
To all Berlin-based musicians and music teachers: Please take notice of an extended article co-authored by Helge Harding and me, published on the website of the Tonkünstlerverband Berlin (DTKV). The essay is concerned with the current state of freelance musicianship and music education in Berlin, pleading for more professionalized activity and engagement. Feel free to read, share, and comment. We’d also appreciate you to get involved yourselves!
One-Track Careers in Music
Classical music education in Germany is suffering from a severe prejudice. The notion that somebody with an instrumental or vocal major, focusing exclusively on his / her subject, is more appreciated than students and graduates of the pedagogical programmes (prospective teachers and music school staff) is widespread at universities and conservatories. Faculties, students, audiences and critiques are generally supportive of high-level performance while professional education is drastically underrated and underpaid. This is a fatal misdevelopment that discourages applicants to choose the profession of teaching music. We should promote school music and instrumental pedagogy because these fields are far more relevant for society and cultural welfare than the formation of an one-track artistic elite. Read more of my thoughts on the institutionalized misbalance between performing and teaching music at the Hello Stage Blog, and please share, comment, and object, if you feel like it.