I met last night with a good friend for the purpose of choosing a successor
to Ozawa.  We had been given this awesome responsibility by-ourselves!!!
who better qualified? It turned out that in our small committee there was
a great groundswell of support for James DePriest and Robert Spano. Others
were mentioned as well- the usual suspects.  Then we pulled out the BSO
prospectus for the 1999-2000 season, and we found that the many of those we
had seriously mentioned as worthy of serious consideration were among the
guest conductors, including our two front-runners.  This circumstance adds
a bit of spice to the upcoming season.  In our humble opinion there is a
good chance that one of the guests will succeeed Ozawa.  Incidentally
Boston area list members should note that Spano is conducting a Handel and
Haydn Society summer concert.

Professor Bernard Chasan
Physics Department, Boston University