Another Big Five orch loses its PR
mainChicago Symphony lost the excellent Rachelle Roe at the end of 2015 after six and a half years service.
Now Katherine Blodgett is quitting the Philadelphia Orch after 15 years.
Starting a trend?
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You do realize that a “Big Five” has a PR department of more than one, right?
… and it’s unlikely Philly ranks in the Top 5 among U.S. orchestras by budget or scope of operations, without getting into the issue of playing standards.
Just curious, when is the last time you heard the Philadelphia Orchestra live? Don’t know about budget, but the playing is certainly up there with the best; make it the very best. I would say it’s my favorite US Orchestra right now.
Not exactly this week’s sign of the apocalypse.
15 years is a pretty long tenure, and a PR person isn’t necessarily employable only in a music organization.
No one I know in the US orchestra field uses the term “Big 5” anymore. That’s a 1950s term! I’m sure the nice folks in the LA Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony would agree!
Big Five? We might as well bring back ancient roman criteria to talk about Europe. No such thing anymore.
Maybe they all got scared after the sensational event that “saved classical music” in the superbowl
Where did Rachelle Roe go?
I’m not sure if this is a trend or not, but I agree with some of the other commenters that the “Big Five” is completely outdated as a concept.
Without argument, The Los Angeles Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony have played as well as any of the historic “Big Five” orchestras for at least a few decades (longer in L.A.’s case), and have both the audience base and massive endowments to match. If anything, there’s a “Super Seven” of U.S. orchestras, and I’m sure that audiences in a few other cities would want to make a passionate case for their hometown bands as well.