Conductor Mariss Jansons dies at 76; led top orchestras

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Mariss Jansons, conductor of top classical ensembles including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, has died in Russia. He was 76.

Jansons’ death in St. Petersburg was confirmed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, where he was chief conductor. Jansons had canceled concerts this summer because of health reasons, the dpa news agency reported.

Born in German-occupied Riga in 1943 in what is now independent Latvia as the son of a conductor father and an opera singer mother, Jansons grew up in the Soviet Union and studied at the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Conservatory. A Soviet-era exchange program brought him to Austria in 1969, where he studied with famed conductor Herbert von Karajan. Jansons’ work was also influenced by the legendary Soviet conductor Evgeny Mravinsky, who brought him in as his assistant at the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1972.

He was chief conductor in Pittsburgh from 1997 to 2004, regularly appeared at the Salzburg Festival, and in 2006 and 2012 conducted the Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert broadcast around the world. He left the Pittsburgh orchestra to become principal conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw, a post he held until 2015. Jansons is credited with raising the reputation of the Oslo Philharmonic through recordings and international tours during a 23-year tenure as music director.

Jansons’ musical focus was large-scale orchestral works by 19th-century central and eastern European composers including Mahler, Dvorak, Bartok, Brahms and Shostakovich. He was known for close attention to detail in rehearsal and made extensive pre-concert sound checks, listening from different points in the hall while one of the musicians wielded the baton and even adjusting the position of players’ chairs to get the sound he wanted.

Loughlin’s daughter returns to her popular YouTube channel

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Social media star Olivia Jade Giannulli on Sunday posted her first YouTube video since the arrest of her parents, actress Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, made her one of the most visible figures in the college admissions scandal that ensnared dozens of wealthy parents and their children.

“Welcome back to my YouTube channel, obviously I’ve been gone for a really long time,” Jade says in the two-minute video, titled “hi again,” posted to her account that has nearly 2 million subscribers.

She says she debated for months whether to return to her channel, which focused on fashion, beauty and video-diary entries about her life.

“I’m terrified to make this video and come back,” Jade says, “but I want to start taking smaller steps in the right direction.”

Loughlin and Giannulli are accused of paying $500,000 to have their two daughters labeled as recruits to the USC crew team so they could gain admission to the school, even though neither participated in the sport.

Charged in federal court in Massachusetts with conspiracy to commit fraud, bribery and money laundering, they have pleaded not guilty and have refused to reach plea agreements with prosecutors as many other parents, including actress Felicity Huffman, already have done.

In her new video, Jade says she stayed away from social media because she is legally prohibited from talking about the scandal, and it seemed pointless to appear and ignore it.

“If I can’t talk about it, is there a point in coming back and not being able to saying anything?” Jade says. It’s not clear what legal restrictions would keep her from speaking or whether attorneys have simply advised her not to do so.

Jade said the pull of social media was too strong to stay away.

“I actually really, really miss it,” she says. “I feel like a huge part of me is not the same because this is something that I’m really passionate about and something I really like to do. … I’m really excited to start filming again and start uploading again.”

Jade went silent on social media after her parents’ March arrest and lost advertising deals that included cosmetics retailer Sephora and hair products company TRESemme.

Jade posted a link to the new video on her Twitter account and a screenshot of it on her Instagram page, both of which have been dormant since the scandal became public.

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton.