(Credit: Brigitte Lacombe) While the Metropolitan Opera is finishing its season with 72 percent of tickets sold, increasing consistently and showing a growth of six percent compared to the 2022-23 season, a lot of questions remain as Met’s General Manager Peter Gelb and the company head into the off-season. When Peter Gelb and Yannick Nezet-Seguin were answering questions for the {…}
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra has announced three new musicians to the ensemble. The orchestra announced the news via social media and welcomed Principal Harp Hannah Copes, Assistant Principal Double Bass Andrew Gantzer, and Second Horn David Alexander. In a statement, Cope said, “I’m elated to be joining the fabulous Met Opera Orchestra. It is a joy to make music alongside {…}
Nathalie Stutzmann has released an open letter apologizing to the Metropolitan Orchestra following a comment in the New York Times. In a letter obtained by slippedisc, she said “Dear Musicians of the Orchestra of The Metropolitan Opera, It saddens me deeply that my comments, as reported in the New York Times on 18 May have caused such disappointment amongst the {…}
The Met Orchestra will be making a $17,000 donation to the National Opera of Ukraine Orchestra. The funds were raised as part of a fundraiser aimed at supporting musicians suffering during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Per a press statement, the idea for the fundraiser emerged during rehearsals for the Met Opera’s “Concert for Ukraine” on March 14, 2022. “The {…}
For over a month, there have been no big headlines about the Metropolitan Opera in news. Sure, there are cast changes and the likes, but that’s kind of business as usual per the Met. And it creates a sense of progress toward the opening of the new season. But this apparent progress or achievement, which during the summer was routinely {…}
(Photo: Related Oxford) In his January 12, 2021, State of the State Address, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo outlined a plan for resuscitating the arts within the State and New York City. Nearly six months to the day, on June 13 at 3:00 p.m. EDT, the MET Orchestra Musicians will present the finale of their Spotlight Series of concerts, “At {…}
The MET Orchestra Musicians Spotlight Series will close on June 13 at 3pm. The recorded live event will showcase the musician before an invited audience at Peak NYC on the 101st Floor of 30 Hudson Yards. Tamara Mumford will host and guest star in the performance which will showcase members of the MET Orchestra performing chamber music and operatic selections, {…}
On April 25, 2021, MET Orchestra musicians will present a concert of chamber music in the memory of the five members who have passed away since the pandemic began. They will be joined by renowned mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade as the host and guest artist. This performance comes as the sixth in the MET Orchestra’s virtual “Spotlight Series,” with a {…}
The Wagner Society of New York has donated $5,000 to the Met Orchestra Musicians Fund. The contribution aims to help more than 150 musicians who have not received their salary since April 2020, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The donation was made in the memory of Katherine Gill, a New Yorker who was a longtime WSNY vice president {…}
Every Friday, Polina Lyapustina delivers a short essay on some of the most sensitive topics in the industry with the intent of establishing a dialogue about the opera world and its future. “Real music is right in the heart of what we struggle. Our task is not to be a leisure activity, but to go the places where no political {…}
The Met Orchestra Musicians have announced a concert showcase set to star soprano Angela Gheorghiu on Feb. 21, 2021. The soprano will perform the “Song to the Moon” from Dvorak’s “Rusalka” in a new arrangement for soprano and bass quintet. She will also perform “Our Father” by Anton Pann and engage in a live chat at the end of the {…}