To start your week, here are a few recent stories that caught our attention!
In a surprising announcement this week, the Berlin Philharmonic’s concertmaster Vineta Sareika has announced that she will leave her position with the orchestra. Her final appearances with it as concertmaster will be in February 2025. Her departure will occur near the end of her probationary period in the first concertmaster position, to which she was appointed in February 2023. Sareika was the first women to hold the first concertmaster position with the orchestra, which she joined in May 2022. Her posts on social media and quotes in reports of her resignation have all been measured, and they confirm that she has decided to leave the
Vineta Sareika
Photo credit: https://www.vineta-sareika.com/
ensemble after three years. The reports have offered few details on why she is leaving, only that she has said, “One of the many valuable learnings during the past years however is that being part of this particular orchestra is not the path I’d like to continue on in the future.”
This may be all there is to know on the subject: being a concertmaster is a full-time and demanding job, and Sareika may have decided to leave based on her experience of over a year doing the job. However, speculation has been thick on the ground about difficulties and hostility that she may have encountered in the position as its first woman candidate, and many are wondering if she’s leaving the position because she was not treated fairly. These speculations seem reasonable because, as an organization, the Berlin Philharmonic does not have a good track record in this area. It did not hire women members until the 1980s—its first was violinist Madeleine Caruzzo in 1982—and as of March 6, 2024 it had a membership of 26 women, 99 men, and five vacancies. (US News & World Report, 2024). The speculations are further enhanced by the prestige of both the orchestra and Sareika’s position within it; being one of the three concertmasters of the Berlin Phil. is near the top of the list of “dream jobs” in classical music. For many people hearing the news, it has been difficult to imagine putting in the heroic time and effort to win the job only to leave it within two years.
Below Sarieka is featured with the Berlin Philharmonic in an August 2023 concert playing R. Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben.
The Women’s Orchestra of Arizona has announced their 2024–2025 season with concert dates, repertoire, and locations. The season will open with a concert on Sunday September 29 entitled “The Green Muse: Celtic in Concert” at the North Scottsdale United Methodist Church. True to its title, the concert will feature orchestral music with Celtic themes, including pieces by two Irish women composers: Joan Trimble‘s Suite for Strings (1951), and Ina Boyle‘s Symphony No. 1: Glencree (1927). The concert will also include John Glenesk Mortimer’s St. Andrew Concerto for viola (2016; US premiere) among other selections.
Below is a compilation of excerpts from the WOA’s February 2024 concert.
Carnegie Hall has announced that composer Gabriela Ortiz will be their composer-in-residence this season, appointed to hold the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair. This appointment is being heralded as a real coup for Ortiz, whose music has often been disparaged by the institutions that form the establishment of classical music. Described as “too exotic” by some and as having “sprawling sonorities” by others, Ortiz’s work finally seems to be getting some of the appreciation that it deserves. From the composer’s own bio: “[Her] music incorporates seemingly disparate musical worlds, from traditional and popular idioms to avant-garde techniques and multimedia works. This is, perhaps, the most salient characteristic of her oeuvre: an ingenious merging of distinct sonic worlds. While Ortiz continues to draw inspiration from Mexican subjects, she is interested in composing music that speaks to international audiences.” Ortiz will write and premiere several new works at Carnegie Hall over the coming season in addition to other performances in the United States and Europe.
Below is a recording of Ortiz’s “Kauyumari” for orchestra, performed and recorded by the New World Symphony in 2022.
Be sure to let us know what news we missed!! [email protected]