Exclusive: Cologne names new maestro without consulting musicians

The city of of Cologne has just anounced the next Generalmusikdirektor of the Gürzenich Orchester without asking its musicians to vote for their next conductor, as is generally expected.

The new man is the excellent Colombian conductor Andres Orozco-Estrada. We understand he made a good impression on the players when he jumped in for a stricken colleague last November and was generally well liked. However, the first any of the musicians knew that he was to be their next GMD was on a message issued to them half an hour before the press conference.

Orozco-Estrada, 45, succeeds the Frenchman Francois-Xavier Roth, who is heading to SWR in Stuttgart, where he was formerly chief of the dissolved radio orchestra.

The Colombian was lastly head of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.