Just in: Top US concertmaster quits
mainThe Indianapolis Symphony has announced the resignation of Zachary DePue, its sought-after concertmaster.
No reason given other than ‘seeking new challenges’.
DePue was not only concertmaster; he was assistant artistic director behind Music Director Krzysztof Urbanski. It appears he has left at the end of the season without prior warning. The ISO says it will start a search soon.
He was also a member of the Time for Three trio.
Why did he quit? Was he assaulted by one of the supposedly homophobic, and not yet violent, guys that volunteered for one of Joshua Bell’s father’s amazing scientific studies, funded by the government.
Or was it one of the row of guys that just wanted to see WHY, it was ruining everything, how they protrayed such arts!?
What!!???
How could he make such insinuations against a person who is single-handedly credited with the discovery of the Slag Cinnamon Effect?
The level to which he stoops in dismissing this breathtaking accomplishment as mere side-slinging whirlybird activity driven by super-attenuated green-grocer potentiometers is, quite simply, stunning.
I, for one, am outraged.
Yikes! Someone needs to be fitted for a new foil hat…
Well, this is sure a whole new perspective. Tell us more, Grillo!
As a Hoosier (that’s a colloquial term for someone from Indiana), I’m sad to see such an excellent musician such as him go. However, I can’t blame him for leaving. Indiana really only has two orchestras that perform on a weekly basis- the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and the ISO. And while I think Indiana is luckier than it thinks to have the ISO and the FWP, I can’t blame Mr. DePue for wanting to go somewhere with more prestigious opportunities. Thank you for your time with the ISO and best of luck in the future, Mr. DePue!
What difference does it make that Indiana has only two full-time orchestras? So does Illiinois (the CSO and Lyric Opera), Washington, Oregon (probably only one), and so on. He only needs to play in one of them, and the ISO is a superb orchestra. But a violinist good enough to be CM of such an orchestra probably also has other career options.
Speaking as someone who has “resigned”, tenure means nothing if a conductor doesn’t like you or wants to be a dickhead. It could have gone either way, either firing or being forced to resign. Or voluntary, if he truly wants to deal with more personal projects.
If it’s the former, it’s a sad situation to be in. If it’s the latter, best of luck to him.
“Speaking as someone who has ‘resigned’, tenure means nothing if a conductor doesn’t like you or wants to be a dickhead.”
Sad but true. I’ve seen it happen.
Plus one. And Urbanski has a history of being exactly that. Concertmasters are low hanging fruit for dickhead conductors.
Hey what happened to the tin foil hat people in the 1st couple of comments? I, for one, would like to hear more about Joshua Bell’s parents’ scientific experiments. What’s up with that?.
#MeToo
Yeah, Urbanski’s got a few of those under his belt, now, doesn’t he?
I don’t think Indyanon is talking about Urbanski.
DePue is a remarkable musician. I lament the evident loss of the string quartet in which he played with cellist Huntington. I fear that it was a firing. As between DePue and Urbanski, I would rather have lost Urbanski. My few ISO connections are not so close to me as to break the evidently agreed upon silence on this matter. I am curious. But much more am I sad. DePue was a treasure of a musician to have in Indy. And his rep for kookiness only enhanced my expectations of his quite special musicianship in the long run.