Dave Lampson quotes the NY Times article:

> The shift adds Boston to a list of venerable orchestras that will
> have podiums to fill over the coming years - Berlin, Philadelphia,
> New York, Atlanta, Houston, Indianapolis and Cincinnati, among others.

With all of these bands shopping for leaders at once, and with Sir Simon
heading for Berlin, someone has got to break down and take a chance on a
relative youngster (as Cleveland did), and maybe even a woman--certainly
an American, anyway.  There just aren't that many greybeards with weighty
reputations and impressive foreign accents left, as far as I can see.  Has
the time finally come when American orchestras will kick their habit of
preferring older European males?

> But that may be not easy.  With so many leading orchestras on the
> hunt for new leadership, it has become a seller's market, even at
> salaries of $1,000,000 and up a year.

But there's the rub.  For that kind of dough, you certainly want an
impressive name.  I predict a bidding war which may render our poor friend
N.  Lebrecht terminally ill, and probably give acute financial indigestion
to more than one orchestra.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]