Rumblings on the Euro orchestra gravy train
mainLocal media are reporting all sorts of insider dealing at the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, around the corner from the European Parliament.
Patrick Minard stepped down last summer as general director after 15 years, giving every indication internal and external that he’d done enough. Minard was promptly appointed to a salaried post as cultural adviser to the Mayor.
His successor – Francis Corpart, 59 – is the city’s former director of human resources. He has no experience of orchestral management, but has friends in all the right places. Musicians say he can’t tell one instrument from another.
You may wonder at this point why you’ve never heard great things of the Strasbourg Philharmonic. That’s about why.
The city has also managed to shut down its once-celebrated summer festival.
Read all the local juice here (en francais).
more gravy, please…
Strasbourg is a city for gourmands, so the formulations of ‘gravy train’ and ‘local juice’ may point towards the temptations that officials are exposed to. Rumors say that this was exactly the reason that the city was chosen for the European Parliament.