Exclusive: A second vice-president quits the NY Philharmonic
mainIn a good week to bury bad news, the New York Philharmonic has been shedding key staff.
Ed Yim, v-p of artists planning, quit yesterday for a better job.
Today, the orchestra’s head fundraiser, Lisa Mantone, found her way to the exit. Lisa was Vice President for Advancement and Communications. She had only been in the post for a year.
To cover its bare patches the Philharmonic has promoted Vince Ford, Director of Digital Media, together with the head of PR, to vice-presidential status.
‘You can see where the priorities lie,’ says a disgruntled insider. ‘Two senior staff members (fundraising and artistic) are leaving and two v-ps are created – communications and digital media.’
Ahh. The exodus begins… a principal 2nd violin position has now also been announced. Who’s next?
Not an exodus. The previous principal 2nd violin retired. Musicians DO retire, you know.
Last time I went, there was an Asian woman sitting principal 2nd violin.
Ed Yim has had a great career as an artistic administrator. I wouldn’t say that he left “for a better job.” He left to take a NEW type of job, which I believe will be his first-ever executive director position. Good luck to him!
One can also assume that Jaap van Zweden intends to bring in his own artistic administrator, so Mr. Yim was compelled to move on.
Goodness!
My two cents — our jobs are not life sentences, and institutions are refreshed by changes: organizations need different leaders and staff at different times; people learn, contribute, move on. Every change is an opportunity to rethink roles, re-articulate priorities and wish our colleagues well.
This! We all know changes happen. Sometimes things look one way but are, in fact, another. Also, the Phil used to have a VP of Communications, but re-organized after that departure. Things have clearly been re-organized again, as roles evolve and people change jobs (within and outside an org).
There really is no news here, jobs evolve, titles change, some get promoted, others move on, it’s called life.
It isn’t like the first violin was changed to second clarinet and principal horn and harp were merged into a single position to be held by the tympanist…
Although I would buy a ticket to that out of sheer curiosity.