We hear that Carlos Kalmar is leaving the orchestra of RTVE with immediate effect after ferocious disagreements with some of its sections.
He will be replaced as music director by Miguel Angel Gomes Martinez, one of his predecessors.
Kalmar is also music director in Oregon.
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Kalmar is music director of the Oregon Symphony in Portland, recently nominated for its second Grammy under his direction. He has also been music director of Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago since 2000.
Nobody cares about that information about Kalmar’s life, dear mrs. Calder. We are sorry for you in Oregon, to keep surviving under his baton.
He really brought here lots of problems and no positive things at all. Nobody deserves to work with somebody like him.
I’m surpised you didn’t get rid of him sooner. Not an easy task when politics have everything to do with conductors getting hired in the first place. Anyway, congratulations!
There is no Grammy in the world that could justify his mistreatment of certain players in the Oregon Symphony. The most shocking was his dismissal and brutal treatment of 27 year veteran Principal Flute Dawn Weiss. Other players, Oregon’s Principal Bassoon, for example left without a fight, deeming Kalmar a tyrant and impossible to work with.
The Dawn Weiss dismissal and legal battle happened on your watch, did it not, Mrs. Calder? Here’s an article which describes a bit of what came down. http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2011/02/carlos_kalmar_brings_fierce_fo.html
Seasoned players in major US orchs. where Kalmar has guested agree that he’s not a good enough conductor to warrant such behavior. He’s not worth the trouble he causes, they say.
So glad the RTVE players put a stop to him in Madrid. Spanish orchs. pay nowhere near what full time US orchs. do, but Spanish labor laws are not negotiable. They protect the players. Any orchestra with the misfortune of having Kalmar as Music Director needs protection.
The Beckmesser blog, whose author is a Madrid classical music insider, has confirmed the Miguel Angel Gomez Martinez appointment, explaining that he’ll start in Jan. 2016. He also confirms the problems with Kalmar and the players as the reason.
http://www.beckmesser.com/gomez-martinez-de-nuevo-director-de-la-rtve/