La Phil names Borda’s successor
mainExecutive director Gail Samuel will take over as acting president and CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra when Deborah Borda leaves for the New York Philharmonic in a couple of months.
Samuel covered for Borda last year when she took a sabbatical at Harvard.
It’s a big job but she can make it her own.
Gail was on the staff of the Minnesota Orchestra during my tenure as CEO.
She is a major talent and has done, and will continue to do well, in Los Angeles.
Hopefully she will redirect some of Borda’s obscene salary to better purposes.
Ms. Borda was the ONLY CEO who ran an orchestra without a deficit for the last 20 years. She earned her keep. No one else could do it. If she’s not costing the orchestra, she earned it.
Yeah, we need to artificially hold down these salaries and ensure that skilled people who show major results that pay back in spades, like Deborah Borda, flee the industry.