“Ticket holders worldwide, beware,” writes Daniel J. Wakin in Saturday’s (4/17) New York Times. “Travel disruptions from Europe’s volcanic ash problem have brought a heavy measure of turmoil to the classical music world. More than in many other fields, its practitioners—conductors, singers, pianists and other instrumentalists—depend on plane flights. … Carnegie Hall suffered an immediate casualty. The work of Louis Andriessen, the most prominent living composer from the Netherlands and a major figure in European music, was to have been featured in a concert at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall on Saturday night. But the performers could not arrive. The pianist Gerard Bouwhuis was stuck in Amsterdam, Carnegie said. The Bang on a Can All-Stars could not get out of Germany, where they were on tour, according to the group’s executive director, Kenny Savelson. The All-Stars were to have given the American premiere of Mr. Andriessen’s new work ‘Life.’ … Given the expense of a canceled concert, including lost rental fees and ticket sales, many concert promoters are willing to spend extra to find substitutes or pay for alternative arrangements.”
Posted April 19, 2010
