How Seattle fell to pieces over 104 heated emails

Doug McLennan has continued digging into the Seattle Symphony trainwreck which resulted in the ‘you’ve got mail’ departure of the Danish music director Thomas Dausgaard.

In an interview with Danish Radio, Dausgaard repeated: ‘I have felt threatened and I haven’t felt safe with going to work.’

McLennan pieces together the breakdown of his relationship with executive director Krishna Thiagarajan, culminating in a fraught meeting with the executive board:

Dausgaard printed out 104 pages of emails between him and Thiagarajan and notes he had taken of their conversations. He had them compiled in binders with copies for each board member. On a Saturday in February 2020, in the offices of a nearby law firm, he tried to make his case, says one board participant. It was, he says, an emotional, even distraught presentation. The emails documented dozens of ideas and initiatives and projects the music director wanted to pursue, and it appeared he had made no progress on them. He seemed particularly incensed by the lack of responses from Thiagarajan to many of his queries…

Read the full story here.