Early music pioneer is fired by Dutch festival

Jan Nuchelmans, 64, co-founder and director of the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht from 1982 to 1999, has been sacked as artistic director of the Dordrecht Bach Festival, according to a report in NRC Handelsblad. A rough translation follows.

“This is very hard – I am totally baffled ‘

The artistic director of the Bach Festival Dordrecht is fired. The Board finds that he no longer functions properly after a stroke in 2012.

The reason for his resignation has not yet got through to the man who was co-founder of the Utrecht Early Music Festival. He worked for the biennialfestival Dordrecht since the first edition in 2010 Nuchelmans think it is looking for a different profile. But the festival itself mentions another reason. “It is not appropriate to burden the efforts associated with a festival to him,” says CEO Jannie van der Loos. “He can not do it anymore.”

In November 2012 Nuchelmans suffered a brain hemorrhage. His left arm is paralyzed, as his left leg. He can only walk short distances. Mental arithmetic became difficult.

“They think I can not handle great emotions,” he says at home in Utrecht. He points to his head. “I have a mobility limitation, yes, but that does not mean it does not work here. I am totally baffled. ”

Do you understand why you were fired?

“No.. They are too vague. They say they want me to stay involved as a consultant. I recently sent a proposal for the new artistic profile, they didn’t talk about ir. That could mean that they do not coincide with mine. In the previous edition, the number of visitors fell against. But that’s not something you now can change. “…

Van der Loos said in response to have “deep respect” for Nuchelmans. “We have two years taken the time to look at how its healing process would go,” she says. He would not give examples of dysfunction. “It just did not work anymore. This is for all dramatic. “