Christoph Eschenbach, formerly the embattled music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, has taken a position with the National Symphony, which will entail not only being the NSO’s music director, but also being the music director of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  Reportedly, this will enable him to curate interdisciplinary festivals in the complex, which includes an opera house, concert hall, recital hall, and theater spaces within its spacious confines.

Read the Washington Post article here.

Drew McManus has his annual compensation reports available over at adaptistration.com - I’d encourage you to take a look of how much we all get paid is of interest to you. What I found interesting was the relationship of executive and music director compensation to that of the orchestra members.

First, a bit of perspective. Here’s the ratio of average CEO compensation to average worker compensation from 1980 to 2006:

[Read more →]

Anthony Tommasini, writing in today’s New York Times, is as bemused as I am by the hand-wringing from the players of the New York Philharmonic on not getting Riccardo Muti as their new music director: [Read more →]

Conductor David Hattner has been appointed as the fifth conductor and music director of the Portland Youth Phiharmonic, known as America’s first established youth orchestra, founded in 1924.

Hattner’s first musical career was as a professional clarinetist, and his positions have included the Princeton Symphony, Cascade Music Festival Orchestra, New Jersey Opera Theater and the Key West Symphony Orchestra.

As a conductor, Hattner has worked with many professional ensembles, including the Brooklyn Symphony and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.

You can find a complete press release here, which includes additional biographical information.

I just perused a recent article about the Florida Orchestra and some highly-publicized comments from subscribers about the contemporary programming that is being done by music director Stefan Sanderling.

I understand that some patrons don’t care for hearing anything written after 1870 or so. Fine. But why do they complain so about hearing something new and/or dissonant?

There are plenty of concertgoers who love more modern music, and they (for the most part) put up with the Brahms symphonies without writing angry letters to the orchestra’s management or the local music critic.

So, what makes the conservative patron more important than she who likes more progressive fare? [Read more →]

OSO Resident conductor Gregory Vajda is up for two more music director positions: the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and the San Antonio Symphony.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:

The Fort Wayne Philharmonic announced its 2008-09 season during a news conference Tuesday.

The season will feature at least 10 different maestros, including eight conducting candidates who are vying for a position that will be vacated by maestro Edvard Tchivzhel at the end of the current season.

Highlights of the Masterworks series include pianist Yuja Wang performing Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto under the direction of Tito Munoz on Sept. 20; violinist Jennifer Koh performing Sibelius’ violin concerto under the direction of David-In-Jae Cho on Oct. 11; cellist Hikaru Tamaki performing Strauss’ “Don Quixote” under the direction of Helene Bouchez on Nov. 8; and pianist Benjamin Hochman performing Leonard Bernstein’s “On the Town” under the direction of Daniel Meyer.

In 2009, violinist Soovin Kim performs Dvorak’s “Violin Concerto in A Minor” under the direction of Andrew Grams on Jan. 24. On Feb. 28, Lincoln scholar Allen Guelzo will provide exegesis for a performance of Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait” under the direction of Gregory Vajda. On March 14, pianist Alon Goldstein will perform Bartok’s third piano concerto under the direction of Danail Rachev. On April 18, cellist Sharon Robinson will perform Shostakovich’s first cello concerto under the direction of her husband, Jaime Laredo. And on May 9, maestro Andrew Constantine will lead the Philharmonic orchestra and chorus in a performance of Orff’s “Carmina Burana.”

Each candidate will also conduct one or two Spectrum and/or Unplugged series concerts.

and from the San Antonio Express News:

“It’s not quite ‘San Antonio Symphony Idol,’ ” writes Deborah Martin in Sunday’s (3/9) San Antonio Express-News, “but patrons will have a chance to weigh in on next season’s guest conductors. Surveys will be tucked into the programs for the 2008-09 concerts to allow audience members to share their views. All but one of the guest conductors are potential successors to music director Larry Rachleff, who is leaving at the end of this season. His final concert will be May 31. ‘We are going to try to develop relationships with the conductors and see where those relationships go,’ said David Green, president and CEO of the symphony.” The candidates for music director are Christoph Campestrini, Alondra de la Parra, Scott Yoo, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, Gregory Vajda, Christian Knapp, James Judd, Andrew Grams, Chosei Komatsu, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, and Rossen Milanov.”

Bill Eddins, music director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, wrote a post a few weeks back about the mixed experience that is being on an orchestral audition committee. He wrote about the process and frustrations of being on the principal trumpet audition committee in Edmonton.

He got a lot of feedback - some good, some bad, some very ugly. [Read more →]

Frank Almond, concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony (and partial concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony), writes a very interesting entry in his blog about the recent search process that ended up with the surprise hiring of Edo de Waart as their next music director.

Photo credit: Koichi Miura
Photo courtesy of Frank Salomon Associates

Junichi Hirokami, the music director of the Columbus Symphony (who I hear is fantastic), has been interviewed by the Columbus Dispatch and made some telling remarks about the situation there. [Read more →]

Apparently the rumor mill at the Philadelphia Orchestra is buzzing with news that Christoph Eschenbach is due to be named music director of the National Symphony - Peter Dobrin of ArtsWatch reports:

That’s been the backstage rumor lately at the Philadelphia Orchestra - that the Washington, D.C. ensemble is set to name Eschenbach its next music director. It certainly added credibility to the rumor that Nigel Boon, the National’s artistic chief, recently stopped by the Kimmel Center to hear several Eschenbach concerts. Now, lots can happen between courting time and sign-on-the-dotted-line time. But Eschenbach will conduct the National in February in a special benefit concert; that might be a good time to expect an announcement.