Maestro?
This article originally appeared in Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper, on November 2, 2002.
by Colin Eatock
In Canada, choosing a new music director for a symphony orchestra resembles nothing so much as the election of a pope. The orchestra’s board of directors solemnly strikes a search committee, the cone of silence is lowered, and rumours fly as guest conductors are brought in for a season of concerts that are also auditions. Then, a plume of white smoke (in the form of a press release) announces the decision with great fanfare.
And who is he, this great man? (And it is, almost invariably, a man.)
“He is of commanding presence, infinite dignity, fabulous memory, vast experience, high temperament, and serene wisdom,” declared The New York Times music critic Harold C. Schonberg, describing the ideal conductor. “He has been tempered in the crucible but is still molten, and he glows with a fierce inner light.”
Or not. More cynically, the Hungarian violinist Carl Flesch wrote, “There is no profession into which an impostor could enter more readily.”
These days, both the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal are shopping for conductors. The TSO was the first to find itself in need of a new leader, when conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste threw in the towel in April, 2000. Announcing the desire to raise his children in a civilized country, he decamped for Europe. The OSM – often hailed as the best band in the land – had no intention of looking for a new conductor until this April. That’s when the musicians’ guild publicly accused maestro Charles Dutoit of “harassment, condescension and humiliation.” Dutoit’s response was to abruptly resign.
Indeed, these are challenging times for Canadian orchestras. Last year the TSO almost folded for lack of cash, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra locked out its players, and the musicians of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra took a voluntary pay-cut. In Alberta, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra is in the throes of bankruptcy, and a musical schism in Edmonton has left that city with two competing orchestras.
Yet the inauspicious events that rendered the TSO and OSM leaderless now offer both orchestras exciting opportunities for renewal – or enough rope to hang themselves with. It largely depends on the two new conductors, who must command respect on the podium, wisely select repertoire and soloists, reach out to the community, smile for photo ops and gladhand for donation dollars. It’s a demanding job, but it comes with perqs – lots of travel, assistants, chauffeured cars, perhaps free accommodation – and a salary that can climb to seven figures.
Predictably, there’s been speculation about the new conductors. In Toronto, word on the street variously favours Danish conductor Thomas Dausgaard, the German Jun Markl and the Canadian Peter Oundjian. In Montreal, Frenchman Michel Plasson, the Swiss-born Emmanuel Krivine and Montrealer Yannick Nézet-Séguin are possibilities. But there are also broader questions. Who is making these critical choices? What are the criteria? And what kind of conductors do these orchestras really need?
At a press conference in July, the OSM introduced its search committee. They’re a diverse group: three players from the orchestra, two OSM board members, two directors of Quebec musical organizations, two OSM administrators, an opera producer in Paris, a concert presenter in Chicago and the principal of McGill University.
As well, it was announced that the search will focus on three types of musician: young up-and-comers, mid-career conductors and senior-level maestros. According to the official communiqué, the ideal candidate will have talents “in keeping with the OSM’s international calibre,” will know the standard and contemporary repertoires top to bottom, should have an interest in Canadian and Québécois music, and will show a “willingness to be involved in the community” – in both official languages.
“I think the committee tends to have a preference for people with more experience, rather than less,” suggests committee chairman Bernard Shapiro in an interview. “But we’ve approached it in a very open-ended sort of way.”
McGill University’s Shapiro is not a professional musician, although he’s been a fan of the OSM since the 1950s. An administrator known for his consensus-building skills, he believes that the search committee should be broadly based. “It should have not only people from the board, but musicians from the orchestra and people from outside the orchestra. There are people who are not necessarily connected with the orchestra, but who have expertise.”
The OSM’s search committee will not actually select the OSM’s next conductor, however. The committee’s role is limited to producing a short-list of candidates – then, a hiring committee, made up of Shapiro and OSM board members, will make the choice.
“How that will transpire will remain to be seen,” says Shapiro. “It’s conceivable that our short list will have just one name. When we started off, we thought we should have two or three names in each category, but that may not happen.” Shapiro hopes that a final decision will be made during the current concert season.
The TSO is much more reluctant to talk about its selection process than the OSM. Staff express the fear that too much public discussion could adversely affect delicate private negotiations. “This music director search is a kid-gloves affair – it’s very sensitive,” cautions TSO director of marketing Michael Forrester. Choosing his words carefully, he explains that the TSO has spent the last two years examining about 100 possible candidates for the position of music director. He claims that his orchestra hopes to engage a “top-ten-on-the-planet calibre conductor” who can “ignite the passions and interests of the city.”
The TSO has assembled a committee of just nine: four TSO board members, three orchestral musicians, the orchestra’s president and CEO, and just one outside advisor – a Toronto-based CBC broadcaster. After many early-morning meetings in the chambers of Goodmans law firm, they’re said to be nearing a decision.
“We have a well balanced committee,” TSO president Andrew Shaw, remarking that the selection criteria were worked out in “very hard-nosed discussions” within the group.
So what are they looking for? “There was a time when a music director could concern himself with repertoire, soloists and the quality of the orchestra – and that was it,” continues Shaw. “That is changing. Yes, he has to make great music, but he also has to be someone who takes a real interest in the community, who takes an interest in the personnel and in the growth of the orchestra. That’s a lot to ask – and it’s quite a difference from a hot-shot maestro who blows into town, does a concert, and blows out.”
Shaw predicts that the TSO will make a decision “before the end of the calendar year, or early in the next,” and he doesn’t believe that Toronto’s conductor search is running into competition now that Montreal is also on the lookout. “The characters of the organizations are so different that it’s unlikely we’ll be knocking on the same doors.” Finally, while he asserts that the TSO intends to attract a top-quality conductor, he flatly refuses to speculate as to what that might cost.
The OSM, on the other hand, has made it known that it hopes to lure a world-class maestro to Montreal with a salary of about $1 million (Canadian). This may sound extravagant, but by the standards of big American orchestras it’s a tad modest. Last year, Forbes magazine reported that James Levine earned $1.85 million (U.S.) at the Metropolitan Opera, and Kurt Masur, then conductor of the New York Philharmonic, drew a salary of $1.51 million (U.S.).
The OSM’s search committee – perhaps wishing to avoid Toronto’s drawn-out deliberations – is making rapid progress: it’s already drawn up a list of about 100 potential candidates and has begun a process of elimination. But according to Gerald Morin, an OSM cellist who is not on the committee, the general membership of the orchestra is pretty much in the dark these days.
“We’re not being kept apprised. We don’t really know who is in the running.” However, he hastens to add, “You can’t have interference from a lot of opinions. We have to trust those making decisions on our behalf. The musicians will have to work with the music director regularly – we want someone we can work with in a mutually respectful collaboration.”
In Toronto, a few orchestra members are willing to talk about the TSO’s search. “In June they brought the orchestra a list of five names,” explains violinist Wendy Rose, who’s also chair of the TSO Players’ Committee. “We were asked to vote on the five names, by secret ballot.”
It would be an overstatement, though, to say that the TSO players are electing their leader, as does the Berlin Philharmonic. Rather, the search committee was polling the musicians: Any conductor who didn’t achieve a 50 percent approval rating was dropped from the list. “This is the first time we’ve had as much input as we have,” remarks Rose. “It will be impossible for the new conductor not to be approved by the players.” (This level of player involvement goes beyond anything planned for Montreal. In the summer, OSM musicians were surveyed for their views on conductors, but at present they have no power of veto.)
Another TSO member, violist Susan Lipchak, is worried that the players have been asked to give opinions based on scanty evidence. “We’ve seen each of these people at least once as guest conductors, but it’s hard to make a decision based on one time only. In the past, a decision was made after seeing a conductor only once – that’s what was done in Saraste’s case – but ideally it should be more than that.”
Lipchak goes on to say that the orchestra almost snagged a promising young conductor early in its search. “We got to a point where we had selected someone through informal evaluations, and he had accepted in principle,” she recalls.
She’s referring, of course, to the young Englishman Daniel Harding, a protégé of the renowned Sir Simon Rattle. “He declined on personal grounds,” confirmed Harding’s London agent by telephone. “He lives in France and has a child, and he wanted to remain based in Europe.”
With one failed attempt behind it, the TSO is taking care to avoid another misstep. In terms of prestige, however, none of the conductors it’s considering currently enjoys anything approaching a “top-ten-on-the-planet” rating. But prestige is not talent, and if the TSO plays its cards right, it may find a gifted conductor who can raise the orchestra to new heights.
As for Montreal, after the Dutoit debacle, the OSM must find someone who can turn a fresh page on history. While it’s far too early to predict who the new maestro will be, he will have the daunting task of re-establishing the OSM’s claim to international stature.
Like all Montreal-Toronto rivalries, one city will no doubt be perceived as victorious in this great conductor chase. But unlike a hockey game, there’s no reason why both orchestras can’t be winners.
With Canadian orchestras facing an uncertain future, let’s hope both teams are still in the game, when the dust settles.
© Copyright Colin Eatock 2002
by Colin Eatock
In Canada, choosing a new music director for a symphony orchestra resembles nothing so much as the election of a pope. The orchestra’s board of directors solemnly strikes a search committee, the cone of silence is lowered, and rumours fly as guest conductors are brought in for a season of concerts that are also auditions. Then, a plume of white smoke (in the form of a press release) announces the decision with great fanfare.
And who is he, this great man? (And it is, almost invariably, a man.)
“He is of commanding presence, infinite dignity, fabulous memory, vast experience, high temperament, and serene wisdom,” declared The New York Times music critic Harold C. Schonberg, describing the ideal conductor. “He has been tempered in the crucible but is still molten, and he glows with a fierce inner light.”
Or not. More cynically, the Hungarian violinist Carl Flesch wrote, “There is no profession into which an impostor could enter more readily.”
These days, both the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal are shopping for conductors. The TSO was the first to find itself in need of a new leader, when conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste threw in the towel in April, 2000. Announcing the desire to raise his children in a civilized country, he decamped for Europe. The OSM – often hailed as the best band in the land – had no intention of looking for a new conductor until this April. That’s when the musicians’ guild publicly accused maestro Charles Dutoit of “harassment, condescension and humiliation.” Dutoit’s response was to abruptly resign.
Indeed, these are challenging times for Canadian orchestras. Last year the TSO almost folded for lack of cash, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra locked out its players, and the musicians of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra took a voluntary pay-cut. In Alberta, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra is in the throes of bankruptcy, and a musical schism in Edmonton has left that city with two competing orchestras.
Yet the inauspicious events that rendered the TSO and OSM leaderless now offer both orchestras exciting opportunities for renewal – or enough rope to hang themselves with. It largely depends on the two new conductors, who must command respect on the podium, wisely select repertoire and soloists, reach out to the community, smile for photo ops and gladhand for donation dollars. It’s a demanding job, but it comes with perqs – lots of travel, assistants, chauffeured cars, perhaps free accommodation – and a salary that can climb to seven figures.
Predictably, there’s been speculation about the new conductors. In Toronto, word on the street variously favours Danish conductor Thomas Dausgaard, the German Jun Markl and the Canadian Peter Oundjian. In Montreal, Frenchman Michel Plasson, the Swiss-born Emmanuel Krivine and Montrealer Yannick Nézet-Séguin are possibilities. But there are also broader questions. Who is making these critical choices? What are the criteria? And what kind of conductors do these orchestras really need?
At a press conference in July, the OSM introduced its search committee. They’re a diverse group: three players from the orchestra, two OSM board members, two directors of Quebec musical organizations, two OSM administrators, an opera producer in Paris, a concert presenter in Chicago and the principal of McGill University.
As well, it was announced that the search will focus on three types of musician: young up-and-comers, mid-career conductors and senior-level maestros. According to the official communiqué, the ideal candidate will have talents “in keeping with the OSM’s international calibre,” will know the standard and contemporary repertoires top to bottom, should have an interest in Canadian and Québécois music, and will show a “willingness to be involved in the community” – in both official languages.
“I think the committee tends to have a preference for people with more experience, rather than less,” suggests committee chairman Bernard Shapiro in an interview. “But we’ve approached it in a very open-ended sort of way.”
McGill University’s Shapiro is not a professional musician, although he’s been a fan of the OSM since the 1950s. An administrator known for his consensus-building skills, he believes that the search committee should be broadly based. “It should have not only people from the board, but musicians from the orchestra and people from outside the orchestra. There are people who are not necessarily connected with the orchestra, but who have expertise.”
The OSM’s search committee will not actually select the OSM’s next conductor, however. The committee’s role is limited to producing a short-list of candidates – then, a hiring committee, made up of Shapiro and OSM board members, will make the choice.
“How that will transpire will remain to be seen,” says Shapiro. “It’s conceivable that our short list will have just one name. When we started off, we thought we should have two or three names in each category, but that may not happen.” Shapiro hopes that a final decision will be made during the current concert season.
The TSO is much more reluctant to talk about its selection process than the OSM. Staff express the fear that too much public discussion could adversely affect delicate private negotiations. “This music director search is a kid-gloves affair – it’s very sensitive,” cautions TSO director of marketing Michael Forrester. Choosing his words carefully, he explains that the TSO has spent the last two years examining about 100 possible candidates for the position of music director. He claims that his orchestra hopes to engage a “top-ten-on-the-planet calibre conductor” who can “ignite the passions and interests of the city.”
The TSO has assembled a committee of just nine: four TSO board members, three orchestral musicians, the orchestra’s president and CEO, and just one outside advisor – a Toronto-based CBC broadcaster. After many early-morning meetings in the chambers of Goodmans law firm, they’re said to be nearing a decision.
“We have a well balanced committee,” TSO president Andrew Shaw, remarking that the selection criteria were worked out in “very hard-nosed discussions” within the group.
So what are they looking for? “There was a time when a music director could concern himself with repertoire, soloists and the quality of the orchestra – and that was it,” continues Shaw. “That is changing. Yes, he has to make great music, but he also has to be someone who takes a real interest in the community, who takes an interest in the personnel and in the growth of the orchestra. That’s a lot to ask – and it’s quite a difference from a hot-shot maestro who blows into town, does a concert, and blows out.”
Shaw predicts that the TSO will make a decision “before the end of the calendar year, or early in the next,” and he doesn’t believe that Toronto’s conductor search is running into competition now that Montreal is also on the lookout. “The characters of the organizations are so different that it’s unlikely we’ll be knocking on the same doors.” Finally, while he asserts that the TSO intends to attract a top-quality conductor, he flatly refuses to speculate as to what that might cost.
The OSM, on the other hand, has made it known that it hopes to lure a world-class maestro to Montreal with a salary of about $1 million (Canadian). This may sound extravagant, but by the standards of big American orchestras it’s a tad modest. Last year, Forbes magazine reported that James Levine earned $1.85 million (U.S.) at the Metropolitan Opera, and Kurt Masur, then conductor of the New York Philharmonic, drew a salary of $1.51 million (U.S.).
The OSM’s search committee – perhaps wishing to avoid Toronto’s drawn-out deliberations – is making rapid progress: it’s already drawn up a list of about 100 potential candidates and has begun a process of elimination. But according to Gerald Morin, an OSM cellist who is not on the committee, the general membership of the orchestra is pretty much in the dark these days.
“We’re not being kept apprised. We don’t really know who is in the running.” However, he hastens to add, “You can’t have interference from a lot of opinions. We have to trust those making decisions on our behalf. The musicians will have to work with the music director regularly – we want someone we can work with in a mutually respectful collaboration.”
In Toronto, a few orchestra members are willing to talk about the TSO’s search. “In June they brought the orchestra a list of five names,” explains violinist Wendy Rose, who’s also chair of the TSO Players’ Committee. “We were asked to vote on the five names, by secret ballot.”
It would be an overstatement, though, to say that the TSO players are electing their leader, as does the Berlin Philharmonic. Rather, the search committee was polling the musicians: Any conductor who didn’t achieve a 50 percent approval rating was dropped from the list. “This is the first time we’ve had as much input as we have,” remarks Rose. “It will be impossible for the new conductor not to be approved by the players.” (This level of player involvement goes beyond anything planned for Montreal. In the summer, OSM musicians were surveyed for their views on conductors, but at present they have no power of veto.)
Another TSO member, violist Susan Lipchak, is worried that the players have been asked to give opinions based on scanty evidence. “We’ve seen each of these people at least once as guest conductors, but it’s hard to make a decision based on one time only. In the past, a decision was made after seeing a conductor only once – that’s what was done in Saraste’s case – but ideally it should be more than that.”
Lipchak goes on to say that the orchestra almost snagged a promising young conductor early in its search. “We got to a point where we had selected someone through informal evaluations, and he had accepted in principle,” she recalls.
She’s referring, of course, to the young Englishman Daniel Harding, a protégé of the renowned Sir Simon Rattle. “He declined on personal grounds,” confirmed Harding’s London agent by telephone. “He lives in France and has a child, and he wanted to remain based in Europe.”
With one failed attempt behind it, the TSO is taking care to avoid another misstep. In terms of prestige, however, none of the conductors it’s considering currently enjoys anything approaching a “top-ten-on-the-planet” rating. But prestige is not talent, and if the TSO plays its cards right, it may find a gifted conductor who can raise the orchestra to new heights.
As for Montreal, after the Dutoit debacle, the OSM must find someone who can turn a fresh page on history. While it’s far too early to predict who the new maestro will be, he will have the daunting task of re-establishing the OSM’s claim to international stature.
Like all Montreal-Toronto rivalries, one city will no doubt be perceived as victorious in this great conductor chase. But unlike a hockey game, there’s no reason why both orchestras can’t be winners.
With Canadian orchestras facing an uncertain future, let’s hope both teams are still in the game, when the dust settles.
© Copyright Colin Eatock 2002
