In the recent otherwise excellent article in the New York Times about the Met’s innovative new production of Die Zauberflöte, we were disheartened to read our guest conductor’s supposition that the Met Orchestra might be bored playing in the pit. “There’s nothing more boring than being an orchestra musician and being in the back of a...
Yesterday, on May 7th, the Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble presented their final concert of the season at Carnegie Hall in a sold out performance. It was a wonderful afternoon of chamber music featuring many of our incredible colleagues. The program also featured our Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, as well as bass-baritones Ryan Speedo Green and...
We are delighted to collaborate again with Lessonface for this year’s live online masterclasses. The first masterclass will be with our Principal Second Violin Jeremías Sergiani-Velázquez on Sunday October 30th at 2pm EST. The application deadline to perform in this live online masterclass is October 8th. For more information on how to apply, please...
Announcing our new Associate Principal and Assistant Principal violas. Congratulations Shmuel and Tal! From The Strad: New York’s Metropolitan Opera Orchestra announced two new appointments last week, both in the viola section. Shmuel Katz had been an associate member of the orchestra for a decade and has now been appointed associate principal viola. He serves as...
Brass Witch makes magnetic pencil holders that fit securely onto any brass instrument, so that when the maestro gives comments, you can quickly pick up the pencil from the instrument, write the comments on the music page and reattach the pencil using one hand, via the strong NeoDymium “rare Earth” magnets. The vegan leather...
#WeWillMetAgain! An agreement has been reached and we commence rehearsals Aug 30. In addition to The Metropolitan Opera’s 2021-22 season performances, our musicians will be featured in our new chamber music series in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall or check out one of our new outreach performances via Carnegie Hall’s FREE! Citywide series. We are filled...
The Vienna Philharmonic has released a statement in support of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. We are grateful for their voices of support. The text reads: Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,The world is watching. 30% of the members of the MET Orchestra can no longer sustain a living in New York City due to being faced with...
On February 21, 2021 at 3pm EST, the MET Orchestra Musicians will present soprano Angela Gheorghiu in concert from Bucharest’s stunning Romanian Athenaeum. This opera star, since her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1993, is one of the most beloved sopranos on the planet and was slated to return to the Met in the 2020/21 season....
As the Met Orchestra enters its tenth month without salary, we fear that a Cultural Great Depression awaits society on the other side unless there is significant support for the artists who give the world hope and inspiration. The members of the Met Orchestra deserve the dignity which has been afforded to all other musicians...
We have now been unpaid for 10 months and counting. The Metropolitan Opera is an outlier in our industry; every other major orchestra has been compensated since the very beginning of the pandemic. Met management is using the pandemic opportunistically. They are not seeking a short-term crisis-plan to balance out pandemic circumstances. They are seeking...
