Breaking: Music director quits major orchestra in mid-tour

We hear that Han-na Chang, music director of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, has resigned with immediate effect. The orchestra is in the middle of a European tour and had a considerable success at its BBC Proms debut last night.

The grounds for Chang’s resignation are not known*, although we hear trouble has been brewing with the orchestra’s German manager, Kurt Meister. There was also a recent clash with the concertmaster.

Meister assembled the orchestra from young, mostly European players. Its function is to highlight the cultural credentials of the gulf Emirate, and to obscure its dark role in employing slave labour and sponsoring terror organisations across the Middle East.

Han-na Chang was appointed a year ago amid much fanfare. Sunday’s concert was, said one observer, ‘not flawless but full of promise’.

She is the second music director in three days to resign with immediate effect. The first was (here).

*UPDATE: Here’s Han-na’s non-specific account of events.