NEWS ROUND-UP

News in brief Nominations are now open for the Music & Drama Education Awards 2023, which celebrate the achievements of teachers, school departments and individuals. The judging panel and host will be announced closer to the ceremony on 23 February 2023. Nominations can be made in categories including Outstanding Musical Initiative, Outstanding Music Education Resource and Outstanding School Music Department. You can find out more and submit your nomination at the Awards website. www. musicdramaedawards.com

The South Korean composer behind the soundtracks for screen hits including Squid Game and Parasite, Jung Jaeil, has signed to Decca Records. His first project of the new partnership will be the international release of his album psalms, which combines a cappella choral works performed by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra and Choir with electronic sounds and string ensemble. The album will be released in partnership with Universal Music Korea on 22 July.

Climate-change opera Sun & Sea comes to London this summer. Created by Lithuanian performance artist Lina Lapelytė, filmmaker, theatre director and visual artist Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė and librettist Vaiva Grainytė the opera won the Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale and documents the harrowing stories of a group of holidaymakers lying on the beach while the environment passes the point of no return. Sun & Sea is at the Albany in London until 10 July.

Klaus Ma''kela'' partners with Concertgebouw Orchestra

The Concertgebouw Orchestra has announced that its next chief conductor will be Klaus Mäkelä. The 26-year-old Finnish conductor will begin a ten-year relationship with the orchestra as an artistic partner from the 2022/23 season before taking over the top role in 2027. He will start with a five-week commitment to the orchestra per season, eventually moving up to 12.

Mäkelä first conducted the Concertgebouw in September 2020, and was selected by a process led by its players. Jörgen van Rijen, principal trombone, chairman of the artistic committee and orchestra board member, said: ‘I speak on behalf of all my fellow orchestra musicians when I say that we wholeheartedly choose for a long-term collaboration with conductor Klaus Mäkelä.’ He added: ‘With his deep

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Players' pick: Klaus Mäkelä

understanding and command of a broad range of repertoire and his inspiring artistic vision and energy, Klaus brings out the best in us.’

One of the leading lights in the latest generation of young conductors, Mäkelä studied at the Sibelius Academy in Finland. He is currently chief conductor of the Oslo

Philharmonic Orchestra and music director of the Orchestre de Paris, and will become only the eighth chief conductor in the Concertgebouw’s 133-year history. Mäkelä said: ‘This is an orchestra of exceptional musicians with a shared curiosity and ambition for music-making at its most touching and communicative. I am so grateful to the orchestra and its administration for welcoming me with open arms and I look forward to all the shared moments on and off stage in the years to come.’

Mäkelä also studied the cello, and has appeared as a soloist with several Finnish orchestras and as a chamber musician with players around Europe. He is artistic director of the Turku Music Festival and an exclusive Decca Classics artist. He released his critically-acclaimed debut recording of Sibelius’s complete symphonies this year.

Making Music publishes proposal to save UK music libraries UK leisure-time music organisation Making Music, in partnership with the Music Libraries Trust, and the UK and Ireland International Association of Music Librarians, has published a proposal for the improvement of access to sheet music.

The public-library network, which has so far been the largest and most cost-effective provider of sheet music to music groups, has been impacted by local authority budget cuts. A lack of investment in developments towards financial sustainability has placed the future of this resource in peril.

Sally Groves MBE, chair of the Music Libraries Trust, said: ‘Following our large-scale survey of this community during 2020, we are delighted to be working with our partners to find a sustainable way to support the vibrant musical culture that the UK is celebrated for.’

The Trust’s newly published document sets out the current uncertain position, and outlines how music libraries could function sustainably. Suggestions include a national steering group of interested parties to explore the national integration of services and resources, and safeguard material when a local service closes.

Barbara Eifler, Making Music chief executive, said: ‘At Making Music, we have been working with individual services, local authorities and providers for seven years, and now know that it is possible to ensure a future for music libraries whilst relieving under-resourced local authorities of all or most of the financial burden.’

Local music library services under threat can email info@makingmusic.org.uk for support.

6 | Classical Music | Summer 2022

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