This Week in Classical Music-June 7, 2009

by: Randy Kinkel

June 07, 2009

Stanley Drucker

This Week in Classical Music-June 7, 2009

( Phoenix, AZ )
• Drucker retires from NYP at 80
• Alsop re-ups in Baltimore
• 20 year old Aussie wins prize

It’s This Week in Classical Music, an update on what’s happening in the classical music world; I’m Randy Kinkel.

Clarinetist Stanley Drucker is retiring from the New York Philharmonic after 60 years with the organization—that’s the longest tenure of any player in the orchestra’s existence! During his time with the orchestra, Drucker has seen 10 music directors, visited 60 countries on tour, and had 191 solo appearances and over 10,000 concerts with the orchestra. “It’s just the way life works,” he said. “You have your time, your era. Mine has been a very long time and era. I’ve been very lucky.” Drucker said his musical faculties were undiminished, but 80 was a good time to retire; “I always wanted to retire with everything intact,” he said.
Marin Alsop will remain music director of the Baltimore Symphony for another six years. She became the Orchestra’s 12th music director in 2007, and her three year contract will be up in 2010; her contract was renewed until 2015. Alsop said, “I’m Very, Very happy about it; orchestra members reportedly are too. Orchestra Players committee Chairman Laurie Sokolov called Alsop “just a dream Music Director for these challenging times—it’s wonderful to know she’s on our side.”
A 20-year-old violinist from Australia has won the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Belgium. Ray Chen, who was born in Taiwan but lives in Australia and studies with Aaron Rosand at the Curtis Institute in the US, won 20,000 euros, concert engagements, a recording contract and the loan of the 1708 “Huggins” Stradivarius Violin.
For more on these and other items and events, go to the website, kbaq.org; be listening each week at this time for another update; and join me every weekday for the Mozart Buffet, an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries; I’m Randy Kinkel for This week in Classical music, on 89.5 KBAQ Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.