07.28.05 (AP) A 16-year-old New Jersey pianist is now suing his music teacher, claiming she confronted him on stage during a Carnegie Hall competition and slammed a piano keyboard cover on his fingers as they argued over what piece he would play. Bryan O'Lone of Vineland also claims that Yalena Ivanov publicly berated him during the Young Pianist Competition Of New Jersey event, stripped him of a $350 prize he had earned at an earlier organization event and barred him from taking part in a trip to a musical festival in Italy. The teen and his family are seeking unspecified damages and a public apology from Ivanov, who founded the Young Pianist Competition Of New Jersey. The lawsuit, filed July 1st in state Superior Court in Cumberland County, also names Lana Ivanov, the teacher's daughter and director of the event, and the Young Pianist Competition Of New Jersey as defendants. According to the lawsuit, the incident stemmed from O'Lone's decision to play Chopin's "Scherzo No. 2," which he had practiced for the performance. When he arrived at the June 12th event, O'Lone said, he learned that the program had him listed as performing Beethoven's "Pathetique." When he told Lana Ivanov about the discrepancy, she allegedly told him he would have to perform the Beethoven composition. "They said I had to play it and I was bewildered by the whole thing," O'Lone told the Press Of Atlantic City. "What was the big deal? They change things like that all the time." O'Lone said a recital judge told him he could play what he wanted, so he chose to play the Chopin piece. After a few notes, Yalena Ivanov came on stage and accosted the teenager in front of a crowd of 300 people, according to the lawsuit. The Young Pianist Competition Of New Jersey's board said O'Lone was assigned the Beethoven piece by Yalena Ivanov -- who chose all music to be played -- and was rejected when he asked for permission to play Chopin. He practiced the Beethoven composition during rehearsal. but when he got on stage, he told the crowd the program contained a misprint and that he would be playing Chopin, the group said in a statement released Thursday by Lana Ivanov. "Mrs. Ivanov lowered the lid slightly (while holding it in her hands) so he could not continue to play, and asked him to leave the stage," the board said. After that, the boy's family screamed profanities at Yalena Ivanov while she was on stage, according to the Young Pianist Competition Of New Jersey, who said the Ivanovs believe the suit will be dismissed.

07.27.05 (AP) Britain's Royal Opera House has declared troubled philanthropist ALBERTO VILAR in breach of a multimillion-dollar pledge that saw the company put his name on its flagship building. It gave him 60 days to resume payments. It is the latest sour note in the relationship between Britain's leading opera house and the Cuban-born financier, who was arrested in New York in May on charges of business fraud. In a statement, the Royal Opera House said Vilar was in "material breach" of his 1999 pledge of $17 million to the company's development fund. In return for the donation, the company renamed its Floral Hall - an iron and glass-roofed atrium overlooking London's Covent Garden market - the Vilar Floral Hall. Opera spokesman Christopher Millard said today that no decision had been made on removing Vilar's name from the building. "Obviously, we're taking legal advice," he said. Millard said ALBERTO VILAR had given the company $5 million of the promised redevelopment money, and had not made a payment since March of 2002. "We have renegotiated the schedule of payments on several occasions," said the July 13th statement issued by the chair of the opera's trustees, Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas. "However, he has consistently failed to reach these new deadlines and in doing so is in breach of all agreements." The statement said that if Vilar did not resume payments within 60 days, "the ROH will then be entitled to notify Mr. Vilar that the agreement is terminated." Last month the company dropped Vilar's name from its young artists' program, saying he had fallen behind on promised payments. On Tuesday, a new charge of conspiring to commit securities fraud and a second count of wire fraud were added to the U.S. case against the philanthropist. Vilar, who Forbes magazine once said was worth $950 million, tried to build a legacy of opera sponsorship with the fortune he earned and lost in the rise and fall of the 1990s dot com era. The financier spent an estimated $225 million adorning opera houses throughout the world with his name. Besides the $17 million he donated to the Royal Opera House, Vilar gave $20 million to the Metropolitan Opera in New York and $14 million to St. Petersburg's Kirov Opera. In May, ALBERTO VILAR was arrested and charged with engaging in fraudulent, deceptive and manipulative business practices. Prosecutors said Vilar used an investor's money "as a personal piggy bank" to pay personal expenses and make charitable donations. Prosecutors say Vilar and colleague Gary Alan Tanaka cheated an investor in their firm out of $5 million, which they spent on personal expenses and contributions to entities including the American Academy in Berlin and Vilar's alma mater, Washington & Jefferson College. The charges carry a potential penalty of more than 10 years in prison. ALBERTO VILAR is free on $10 million bail as he awaits trial.

07.18.05 (AP) MARIN ALSOP, an American considered one of the world's top female conductors, says she expects to be appointed music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Pending approval of a contract, which was still being negotiated, and a vote tomorrow by the symphony's board, she would take over in the 2007-2008 season, Alsop said in a phone interview. "It's imminent. I don't think there are any huge stumbling blocks," Alsop said of her appointment, which was first reported by The Baltimore Sun. "It's really thrilling. I have a long association with the Baltimore symphony, and I've loved them from the very first." Laura Johnson, a symphony spokeswoman, said "the majority of the board feels very favorable to Ms. Alsop. This could be an incredible moment." Because of previously scheduled events on her calendar, she would be "director designate" for the 2006-2007 season. Alsop, 48, is currently principal conductor at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. When she got that appointment in 2002, she became the first woman to take over a major British orchestra. She plans to conduct 14 weeks of concerts a year with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and will eventually move to Baltimore. The job, Alsop says, would make her the first woman to lead an American symphony of Baltimore's size. If approved, Alsop would lead an orchestra struggling with a $10 million accumulated deficit and replace Yuri Temirkanov, the Russian conductor who's stepping down at the end of the 2005-2006 season, his seventh with the orchestra. MARIN ALSOP has been lauded in America and Europe, working as a guest conductor with symphonies around the world. Before Bournemouth, she was music director for the Colorado Symphony Orchestra for 12 years. She has conducted regularly in Baltimore over the last four seasons, most recently in February, and is scheduled to lead two programs next season. In 2003, MARIN ALSOP was voted Gramophone magazine's "Artist Of The Year," and won the Royal Philharmonic Society's conductor's award in the same season. Alsop also has an ongoing recording relationship with Naxos, and has enjoyed great acclaim with her complete Samuel Barber orchestral cycle with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Last Fall, Naxos released her first recording with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, featuring Leonard Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms." She is currently recording a Brahms Symphony cycle for Naxos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

07.14.05 (AP) Although bassist/vocalist ROGER WATERS dabbled with operatic themes in PINK FLOYD's "The Wall," he's never written a traditional opera - until now. Waters will debut "Ca Ira (There Is Hope)," his opera about the French Revolution, September 27th with a two-disc CD and DVD project via Sony Music. Though the production includes baritone Bryn Terfel and other Classical music veterans, Waters believes "Ca Ira" might spark some skepticism from the Classical music world. "I'm in some state of trepidation because I feel that I'm putting my head on the chopping block," he told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. "It's actually very melodic and it's unashamedly emotional. So, if the intellectuals of the modern opera world are catty about it, so be it. I fully expect some resistance. There will be a lot of, 'Who does he think he is?'" The idea for the opera came in 1989, around the time of the revolution's bicentennial, when songwriter Etienne Roda-Gil approached ROGER WATERS with his libretto, illustrated by Roda-Gil's wife, Nadine. "He wanted to know if he could use my old songs," Waters said. "I looked at it and sort of fell in love with it ... after six weeks I had a demo that was over two hours long." The death of Roda-Gil's wife from leukemia halted work on the project, but Waters and Roda-Gil eventually began working together again. Waters wrote both French and English versions of the opera. He said the themes of "Ca Ira" are especially relevant today. "It's not just a piece about the French Revolution, it's about revolution in a much broader sense, and it's about the capacity that human beings have for personal change," Waters said. "The piece is an exultation and an encouragement to those of us who believe the human race can discover its humanity and its capacity for empathy to the point where it may be possible for us at some point to guarantee the basic human rights of the individual (around the world)." "Ca Ira" will be performed in concert in Rome in November, but ROGER WATERS' ultimate goal is to have it produced by an opera company. As for his Rock career, Waters, 61, is working on new album. But those hoping for a PINK FLOYD project after the group's reunion at the Live 8 concert in London will be disappointed. "The chances of further developing with the Pink Floyd reunion are very slight," he said. "The Live 8 reunion couldn't have been better, it was terrific, I was really glad it happened, we got along famously and it was absolutely fine, but (guitarist) Dave (Gilmour) and I do have major musical, philosophical, political and artistic differences," he said with a laugh. "So for us to reconvene would probably not be the most brilliant idea."

[Classical News: June 2005]