As longstanding recording industry showcase Midem kicks off, as ever in Cannes, from Feb. 1, its classical competitor, Classical: NEXT has announced the first details of its program for this coming May (14-17). Midem, with former Warner Music boss Lyor Cohen as keynote speaker, has always had a far bigger pop music wing than its classical and jazz arms.
Still popular with classical labels, though less so than was once the case (also a sign of changing economics in the recording industry), Midem has seen competition from the new Vienna-based conference, which as its name suggests is exclusively focused on classical, and works hard to put as much emphasis on live music and other aspects of the industry.
This will be its third year and I should admit a peripheral connection to Classical:NEXT this year (to be announced in a later release).
The American star baritone Thomas Hampson has been announced as opening keynote speaker, a role that will be the more eagerly awaited after his memorably eloquent defence of opera on the BBC television's Hard Talk program last year. There will be a special conference focus on Brazil (Midem also has a Brazil focus this year, coincidentally) and on South Korea.
New developments in classical music in the latter will be spoken about by the Daewon Cultural Foundation's Moon-Seon Park. And for the former, there will be a conference session entitled "Catalyst Brazil."
And jury-selected showcases will in fact include a Brazilian guitarist, Daniel Murray, as well as musicians as various as the recorder ensemble Plenum, the Japanese pianist Hiroaki Takenouchi and the French vocal quartet Voix de Stras.
Panel and session participants thus far announced (there will be more, including some important names) include the Association of British Orchestras's Mark Pemberton, the Vienna State Opera's Christopher Widauer, two heads of important indie labels SIgnum (Steve Long) and Channel (Jared Sacks), and reps from newer labels such as Odradek, Nonclassical and Testklang (that last session to be chaired by Gramophone Editor-In-Chief James Jolly).
Other instititions to take part include the Menuhin Violin Competition, the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Naxos and others. More as we get it.
