Nagano Leaves Munich - Story on Deutsche Welle

Munich's cultural scene likes scandals. And it is being turned into a scandal that Music Director Kent Nagano announced this week that he will not renew his contract with the Bavarian State Opera beyond 2013.

Kent Nagano's decision may not come as a surprise, but the way it came about rocks the German cultural landscape, and the conductor's temperately worded statement hints at the tensions between culture and politics that have been running high in the Bavarian capital.

"It's not the fact that he is leaving, that upsets me," opera critic Klaus J. Kalchschmid told Deutsche Welle, "but the fact that he was forced to do so by deliberate leaks to the press."

A few days earlier, Bavaria's Sueddeutsche Zeitung had suggested that Nagano received a call from the Bavarian Secretary for Science, Research, and Art Wolfgang Heubisch (a dentist by trade), who allegedly told the music director that he would be at liberty to chose the moment when he would announce "his decision" not to renew his contract.

Read the full article at Deutsche Welle's website.

Ionarts-at-Large: From the 2009 ARD Competition - Extra

Competitions are career makers or breakers for young musicians

Artistic competitions may seem like an oxymoron. But for musicians aiming to be the next Lang Lang, they're the key to a successful career. DW follows young hopefuls as they brave the jury that could decide their future.

Jamie Walton loathes competitions: "Winning a race is as little a concept in music as it would be when embarking upon painting a great masterpiece, or writing a great grand novel, or reciting an epic ballad. To me, even with the most well inspired, neutral, and non-political jury, the very idea of art emerging from a competitive process of better-than-thou is patently absurd."

Walton, now one of Britain's foremost cellists, was lucky; he was able to start a career and obtain a gorgeous instrument without ever having to go through the competition circus. But for most young classical musicians, winning a significant international competition is the surest ticket to the world's prestigious concert stages.

The ARD Competition in Munich, which runs through Sept. 18, isn't the most famous, but it might well be the most important music competition - precisely because of the breadth of music it covers.

It spans two dozen performance categories, from all the typical ones - piano, violin, voice - to more obscure ones like percussion, organ, piano duo, and bassoon. And where else do double bassists or harpists - both categories in the competition this year - have the opportunity to play with top orchestras in the semi finals and finals?

Former winners, including pianist/conductor Christoph Eschenbach, soprano Jessye Norman, cellist Sol Gabetta, or the Ebene String Quartet, either indicate what the competition can do for a career or what perceptive ears are in the jury, or both. (Although world-class soprano Renee Fleming found herself kicked out prematurely, twice.)

Other instruments come to the fore

Double bass and harp this year are rounded out by voice and violin, for which 406 musicians from 44 countries applied. With the list whittled down to 217 participants from 37 countries (minus the no-shows), the first round separated the good from the flawed, the lucky from the unfortunate.

Julie Martin du Theil (photo above), 25, a lithe soprano from Geneva, gave evidence of previous stage experience when she performed a Johann Strauss aria, an art song by Franz Schubert, and a coloratura aria from Igor Stravinsky's lyrical "Nightingale."

(continued at Deutsche Welle)