Gramophone

London’s Southbank Centre reveals details of Festival Wing transformation 

Plans include refurbishment of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery, and the creation of major new arts spaces

Classic FM

Big cats find classical music relaxing

A Somerset zoo has started playing Classic FM to calm some of its more ferocious inhabitants – the lions and tigers – who enjoy listening to the station when they’re relaxing

Classic FM

Austin Wintory’s Journey wins two music awards at Games

Composer Austin Wintory’s innovative score for adventure game Journey has been named winner in the Original Music and Audio Achievement categories at the Games BAFTAs

Classical Source

Five Classics, A Large-Scale Rarity And A Brand New Work For Families At Opera Holland Park In 2013

The combination of high musical standards, accessibility and a spectacular canopied theatre in an idyllic leafy West London setting continues to make Opera Holland Park one of the most popular and critically acclaimed events in the musical calendar. Thanks to an inspired artistic team who are experts at spotting rising stars and matching them with challenging roles in fresh new productions, the festival continues to attract newcomers and seasoned opera-goers alike

Musicalchairs.info

Tchaikovsky Flashwaltz at Hadassah Hospital

Forty students from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance took a classical approach to the flashmob as they flashwaltzed Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers…

The Telegraph

The Big Question: Are opera and ballet elitist?

On Monday 11 March, the first of a series of debates takes place at the Royal Opera House that will be streamed live on the Telegraph website. Sarah Crompton, who will chair the event, picks up its theme – are opera and ballet inherently elitist

Classic FM

(Written on March 7, 2013 )

The Guardian

Access all arias: Die Walküre at the Royal Opera House

What does it take to put on one of the biggest operas? The Royal Opera House installs Big Brother-style cameras. Nicholas Wroe goes backstage

Philip Glass opera shows Walt Disney’s fantasy world in a new light

New work performed by English National Opera portrays a darker side to the cartoon king

Gramophone

David Robertson extends tenure as St Louis Symphony music director

Contract extension runs until the end of the 2015-16 season

The Independent

IoS classical preview of 2012: Plan ahead to catch composers’ anniversaries, rarities and evergreens

As the Southbank Centre braces itself for a year of Noise (see feature, page 58), and opera-lovers contemplate a feast of Britten, Verdi and Wagner, lutenist Paul O’Dette explores the melancholy and wit of 450-year-old John Dowland on Thursday at London’s Wigmore Hall.

Slipped Disc

Vienna Philharmonic ‘blocks access to archives’

A row has erupted in Vienna over claims by the Philharmonic that it has nothing more to hide about its Nazi past.

Fees may soar as orchestras face shortage of concertmasters

Browsing the jobs section of das Orchester, magazine of the German orchestral sector, we were amazed by the number of vacancies advertised for concertmasters.

Evening Standard

Cover-up by Opera Holland Park infuriates the locals

Friends of Holland Park are protesting about a planning application for Opera Holland Park to leave its huge canopy over Holland House, once the home of Charles James Fox, all year round.

3 News (Found via Google)

Opera flash mob delights local market

For nearly two decades people who want to make their names in classical opera in New Zealand have headed to a special place to learn from the best.

LA Times

They conduct classical, but they love pop and rock too

Ever wonder what longhairs listen to when they let their hair down? Once upon a time, when conductors were regarded as remote intellectual titans, no one would have thought to ask.

The Guardian

(Written on January 7, 2013 )

The Telegraph

Let’s have much more opera on the beach

Garsington has proved a hit when beamed to the sands of Skegness.

The chromatic slithering of Delius leaves me cold

Delians claims his music evokes the soul of the forgotten English landscape, but I don’t hear that.

The Independent

Heads up: Wednesday from Light

Opera aims shy hight with 150 performers and 4 helicopters.

Opera al fresco? What could possibly go wrong?

Stag beetles and bats are among the hazards of outdoor performances, says Michael Volpe, head of Opera Holland Park. And don’t get him started on the weather…

The Guadian

A guide to Kaija Saariaho’s music

All composers are dreamers. But very few have dared to dream sonic images of such magnetic power as those that Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho has conjured in her music for ensembles, orchestra, opera houses, electronics and soloists.

Take your seats for Swindon: the Opera

Production with 250-strong cast and crew made up of local people shines spotlight on working-class family life.

BBC Music Magazine

Evelyn Lear (1926-2012)

The soprano who appeared with every major opera company in the US dies aged 86.

LA Times

Woody Allen revisits opera in ‘To Rome With Love’

In his latest movie “To Rome With Love,” Woody Allen plays Jerry, a retired music executive and former opera director who travels to Italy to meet his daughter’s fiancé.

Arts Journal – Slipped Disc

Boulez is out of the BBC Proms

Pierre Boulez has been forced to withdraw from the BBC Proms as a result of continuing difficulties with his eyesight. He is in doubt for the Lucerne Festival.

The Times

Daniel Barenboim’s hazardous Proms mission

‘You need t be brave to join this opera’, says Daniel Barenboim. ‘Our mission is vital’.

Proms highlights: what to book for 

With the Proms starting on Friday, here are highlights from Berlioz, Beethoven, Boulez, not to mention Wallace & Gromit.

5 minutes with Sarah Connolly

Sarah Connolly, 49, is an English mezzo-soprano, widely viewed as one of the world’s finest.

(Written on July 10, 2012 )

Since its opening night on Friday the 8^th of June, Opera Holland Park’s ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ has welcomed outstanding reviews, in particular for the acclaimed Thomas Kemp who ‘makes an exceptional debut as an opera conductor and coaxes a ravishing blend of colours and expression from the supple, responsive City of London Sinfonia’ (classicalsource.com). ‘The Times’ notes Thomas’s conducting style as he ‘gives the singers sensitive support, while keeping the score and the action racing ahead to its dark and uneasy conclusion’, whilst his support is also duly noted by ‘The Evening Standard’: ‘under Thomas Kemp, the City of London Sinfonia’s wind section proves attractively pungent’ . The ‘captivating performance’ of the opening night is sure to bring in the crowds, drawn in by Opera Holland Park’s ‘electric’ atmosphere (The Upcoming).

Also starring in the run of the Mozart opera is Tenor Andrew Staples whose ‘stylish vocal performance’ (classicalsource.com) has been praised by a breadth of reviews. ‘The mellifluous and fresh tenor of Andrew Staples as Ferrando’ (The Times) and ‘Andrew Staples’ swellingly ardent Ferrando’ (The Evening Standard) attracted attention from an abundance of critics. Ferrando’s integral importance to the plot is emphasised by Andrew’s successful performance as his portrayal of ‘part comic rogue…, part victim…’ is ‘tinted and enriched by [a] patina of psychological duality’ – an intelligence which lends itself to an effective interpretation of Ferrando (classicalsource.com).

Tickets are still available for the remaining performances here.

(Written on June 13, 2012 )

Cosi Fan Tutte at Opera Holland Park begins tonight, conducted by the highly-acclaimed Thomas Kemp. The W.A. Mozart classic was first performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna on the 26^th of January, 1790, yet in 2012 its new production, sung in Italian with English subtitles, will be performed on June 8th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 21st, 24th (2pm), 28^th; July 4^th and 7^th at 7.15pm at the esteemed Holland Park venue. Cast members include celebrated Tenor Andrew Staples as Ferrando, accompanied the City of London Sinfonia and the Opera Holland Park Chorus.

Tickets for the full running of the show are still available here. This is a summer event not to be missed.

(Written on June 8, 2012 )

This summer, Thomas Kemp makes his Opera Holland Park debut conducting their new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.

The new production, directed by Harry Fehr, features an exciting cast including Elizabeth Llewellyn as Fiordiligi, Andrew Staples as Ferrando, and Julia Riley as Dorabella.

The engagement at Opera Holland Park marks Thomas’ operatic debut; a genre he hopes to apply the same discipline required for contemporary music to:

“The music for Così fan tutte is some of Mozart’s finest and is full of irony as well as heartfelt sincerity and is rich with allusion and quotation – all of which subtly draw attention to the artificiality of Da Ponte’s original and witty libretto. It is often the writing for the inner parts that adds so much depth and colour to the drama – the violas, second violins, bassoons and clarinets. This is what needs to be teased out of the orchestral texture to make this fantastic music truly come alive.”

Cosí fan tutte opens at Opera Holland Park on June 8^th and runs until July 7^th. For more information please visit the Opera Holland Park website.

(Written on April 2, 2012 )

In the current issue of Classical Music Magazine, conductor Thomas Kemp discusses the pros and occasional cons of working with living composers, and about his recent recording of chamber works by Mark-Anthony Turnage with Chamber Domaine and Nicky Spence.

You can read Thomas’ interview in the current issue of Classical Music Magazine and buy the recording, A Constant Obsession, from Resonus Classics.

Stepping away from contemporary repertoire, Thomas makes his Opera Holland Park debut this summer, conducting their new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.

(Written on February 2, 2012 )

Thomas Kemp is featured in this month’s Gramophone magazine as their monthly ‘one to watch’. In it he is described as ‘a musician for the modern age’ and talks about his upcoming engagements such as Così fan tutte at Opera Holland Park and his new CD with Chamber Domaine; A Constant Obsession.

It also features a tribute from Judith Bingham, with whom he has an ongoing working relationship. In the piece, Bingham describes Thomas as ‘an incredibly dynamic person – like a shot in the arm’.

To read the full interview see the January issue of Gramophone magazine – available now.

(Written on December 22, 2011 )

WildKatPR is proud to announce that we will be working with four outstanding new clients in various fields.  These are Andrew Staples (tenor), Vignette Productions (opera production company), Sid Samberg (composer / pianist) and Music in Offices (music education group).

WildKat is managing an international campaign for all of Andrew Staples’ engagements as well as looking towards his upcoming project, Opera For Change, in September 2013. Andrew will be performing in Opera Holland Park‘s production of Così fan tutte this summer and directing a new production of La Cenerentola at Bury Court Opera in March.

Sid Samberg is a dynamic young composer and pianist who has performed internationally. WildKat is working with Sid, consulting on his career in both America and Europe.

We are also working with Music In Offices, a unique music education company whose clients are high fliers from a range of industries. WildKat is working on their innovative Office Choir Of The Year initiative.

(Written on December 16, 2011 )

Opera Holland Park has announced the appointment of Thomas Kemp to conduct a new production of Così Fan Tutte as part of their 2012 season. Directed by Harry Fehr and starring Elizabeth Llewellyn and Andrew Staples, this production promises to be an exciting event in the summer musical calendar.

Described by the Guardian as “a breath of fresh air” and as playing “with fluency that came over brilliantly”, Thomas has established himself as a major conductor both in Britain and abroad.

For more information visit Thomas’ website here or Opera Holland Park’s website here.

See Thomas conducting Mark Anthony Turnage here:

(Written on November 24, 2011 )