With Christian Thielmann leaving Munich, and Mario Venzago fired from Indianapolis, it’s interesting to note that both departures (though one was the conductor quitting and the other was the conductor being dismissed) are closely related to the overlapping of two roles in the symphony orchestra hierarchy: the artistic administrator and the music director.
For a long time, music directors were solely in charge of the artistic aspects of the running of a symphony orchestra. They would hire, fire, program repertoire, and conduct the concerts. An executive director or chairman of the board would be the administrator of all other functions relating to the day-to-day running of the orchestra. As the need for private support increased exponentially in the latter half of the 20th century, the appearance of the maestro at fundraising events became ever more commonplace, and eventually, the music director became the “big gun” for getting the local heavy hitters to dig deep into their wallets and pocketbooks. I’m pretty certain that most music directors didn’t care for this added responsibility, indeed, Daniel Barenboim, former MD of the Chicago Symphony, declined to renew his contract because of the increasing responsibilities of the MD outside the artistic arena.
In the first decade of the 21st century, a tripartite model is becoming much more common, involving the music director, executive director/president, and an artistic administrator. For what an artistic administrator actually does, see my Final Note written for the OSO’s program book back in March, 2008. What gets tricky is that the artistic administrator’s job description starts to creep into that of the music director. AA’s are quite involved in both programming and booking soloists, and though they will always state that the final decision is up to the music director, it seems that in some cases the balance of power, for various reasons, shifts subtly to the artistic administrator.
Clearly, the situation needs to be addressed through a frank discussion between the three major parties before a season’s planning begins in earnest. At some point along the line, in both Munich and Indianapolis, this was not done to everyone’s satisfaction. Here in Oregon, there seems to be an easy alliance of the triumvirate, with each having their full say, and without seemingly arbitrary decisions being made. Would that that be the case everywhere.