Soundbites
Golden Gate departure
Esa-pekka Salonen says he will not be continuing as music director of the San Francisco Symphony when his contract expires next year. ‘I do not share the same goals for the future of the institution as the Board of Governors does,’ was the blunt explanation from the Finnish conductor, who was also recently named as the recipient of the 2024 Polar Music Prize. The orchestra’s players have since issued a statement expressing their ‘sadness’ at his decision.
Generous conductor
Happier times, however, at the Orchestre National de Lille, which has just named Joshua Weilerstein as its next music director. ‘Joshua Weilerstein conducts the greatest orchestras around the world,’ says the French ensemble about the American, who is also chief conductor of the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra in Denmark. ‘His project is fully in line with the values of our orchestra: openness, excellence and generosity.’
Jolly good fellow
Sir James Macmillan has been awarded the Academy Fellowship, the highest honour bestowed by the Ivors Academy. On receiving the award in a presentation at The Barbican in March, the Scottish composer said that he will ‘take this opportunity to rededicate my energies to the power of music and its mysterious ability to transform lives.’
Doh! Re Mi…
An unlikely classical-meets-hip hop collaboration envisaged in The Simpsons 28 years ago is set to become reality when Cypress Hill joins the London Symphony Orchestra on stage at the Royal Albert Hall this summer. Ever since the episode Homerpalooza depicted the two groups playing together at an alternative rock festival back in 1996, there has been a running gag that maybe such a meeting will happen one day. And on 10 July, it now will.