July 15, 2007

It’s this week in classical music, an update on what’s happening in the classical music world.  I’m Randy Kinkel.

Tenor Jerry Hadley is gravely injured and on life support at a hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York.  He is not expected to survive.  The 55-year-old tenor shot himself in the head Tuesday morning, causing severe brain damage.  The woman he lived with heard the shot and called police.  His career was apparently going through a waning period and he was beset by financial troubles and depression.  Friends were shocked at the incident, saying Hadley had recently seemed excited about a possible comeback.  Hadley’s last major performances were in May, when he sang the role of Pinkerton in “Madame Butterfly” in Brisbane, Australia.

Hans Graf has agreed to continue as music director of the Houston Symphony through the 2012 season.  The Austrian-born conductor who joined the orchestra in 2001 extends his contract for an additional three seasons with this new agreement.  Graf said, “We will be able to continue to make music at the highest level and work further to enhance the visibility of our orchestra.”

There’s another Jarvi making waves in the classical music world these days.  There’s 70-year-old Neeme, the music director of the New Jersey Symphony and the Hague Residentie Orchestra, Neeme’s son, 44-year-old Paavo, the music director of the Cincinnati Symphony, and now Neeme’s other son, 35-year-old Kristjan Jarvi, who this weekend conducted performances of Adams’ opera “Nixon in China” witg the Cincinnati Opera.  Kristjan holds a number of conducting posts in Europe and just finished a thirteen-concert tour with his Electro-acoustic new music chamber ensemble “Absolute.”

For more information on these and other items and events, go to the KBAQ website at KBAQ-dot-org.  Be listening every week at this time for another update, and join me at noon every weekday for the Mozart Buffet, an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries.  I’m Randy Kinkel for K-B-A-Q, Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.