oboeinsight

Read here:

San Francisco Symphony’s Oboist Collapses During Performance
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
The principal oboist of the San Francisco Symphony collapsed in mid-performance of Richard Strauss’ oboe concerto Saturday night and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. An orchestra spokesman, Oliver Theil, said the musician, William Bennett, was standing on stage before the orchestra and performing when he passed out. He said Mr. Bennett, 56, suffered a brain hemorrhage and was in the hospital in “guarded condition” on Sunday. The oboist joined the symphony in 1979 and has been principal since 1987.

In a review of an earlier performance this week, the critic Joshua Kosman, writing in The San Francisco Chronicle, said Mr. Bennett gave “a rare and eloquent rendition” of the work. “Bennett, who last played the piece with the Symphony more than 20 years ago, sounded as virtuosic and forthright as ever,” Mr. Kosman wrote. “He sailed through the technical challenges of the opening movement, and brought limpid purity of tone to the slow movement.”

I had heard about this last night but waited until it was made public. This is very sad and I do pray for a full recovery.

Kurt Masur, the legendary former director of the New York Philharmonic, was recovering from injuries in a hospital on Friday after he fell off a podium during a concert in the French capital.

The 84-year-old Masur, who was conducting the National Orchestra of France on Thursday night, lost balance during a movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6.

The orchestra’s spokesperson, Camille Grabowski, told The Associated Press on Friday that Masur is expected to be released “very soon” from Paris’ Pompidou hospital, following overnight tests.

“He fell upside down onto his back because his left foot was too near the edge of the podium. It’s not linked to health problems. He’s as healthy as anyone of his age,” added Grabowski.

RTWT

Struggling Valiently

Evolving Unexpectedly

It’s difficult to know exactly what those mean, though.

Just read this:

Dear friends of Salvatore Licitra,
Here is to inform that Salvatore Licitra suffered a severe traffic accident late Saturday night, August 27, in Modica (Ragusa, Sicily). He was brought to Garibaldi di Catania hospital where he had surgery and is treated for his serious injuries.

And here is a news article.

This doesn’t sound good.

Boston Symphony Orchestra music director James Levine has withdrawn from his remaining schedule this season because of illness.

The BSO said Tuesday that “ill effects from a recent procedure addressing his ongoing back issues, further complicated by a viral infection,” forced Levine to cancel the concerts.

The withdrawal affects a March 3-19 tour of New York and New Jersey. But the BSO says all performances, including Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and Kennedy Center appearances, will take place as scheduled.

On Friday, illness forced Levine to withdraw from a second straight performance.

I read it here.

Something many musicians do think about is damage to our fingers. I am SO sorry to read about this:

Pamela and Bill Resch thought a romantic horse-drawn carriage ride through downtown Los Gatos would be the perfect way to celebrate the holidays and their upcoming 42nd wedding anniversary.
When another couple was late for the ride, the Resches took the opportunity to pose for pictures with the horses. Pamela Resch, an accomplished concert pianist, said she didn’t panic at first when a horse named Tom started nibbling on her finger after she pet him on the head.
“I looked him straight in the eye and said, ‘Let go,”’ she said. “He started to chew.”
In the next few frantic moments, the couple said, the horse bit off the tip of her right pinky finger — sending Resch into shock and leaving in doubt whether she’d ever command the piano again.
“I saw a little piece of meat and a red thing hanging off, and my next thought was ‘my life is over,”’ Resch, 63, said Tuesday of the Dec. 21. ordeal.
In the chaos that followed, someone found the fingertip and gave it to Bill Resch in a cup of ice, he said. A plastic surgeon re-attached the tip that night and everyone is hoping for the best.
“I heard ‘let go, let go,”’ Bill Resch said. Then, “she was holding her hand up and somebody was saying, ‘Where’s the finger, where’s the finger?'”

RTWT

I know Pam and her husband Bill. This is just such awful news. I do pray that the finger heals properly. This is scary.

The 85-year-old founder of Opera of San Jose is recovering at the hospital after being involved in a car accident Friday, the opera’s publicist said today.
Irene Dalis, whose birthday party with nearly 250 guests on Oct. 15 was chronicled in the Mercury News, suffered a broken leg, but is “still feisty as ever,” said Virginia Perry, the opera’s director of marketing and development. “She’s giving out directives and telling people not to send flowers or condolences, but send donations to the opera instead.”

… and isn’t that just like Miss Dalis?! I knew she’d suggest donations! (I even told a friend that very thing.)

I had received this news yesterday, but didn’t feel it appropriate to post it on my blog. Now that it’s in the Mercury News, though, I figure it’s out there for the world to see in any case.