Conductor settles unfair dismissal case in London
UncategorizedThere was outcry on this site in October 2021 when the Guildhall School of Music and Drama secretly sacked Peter Ash, Artistic Director of the London Schools Symphony Orchestra for 20 years.
An unfair dismissal case was due to be heard next week by an employment tribunal, but the Guildhall has settled out of court at the eleventh hours in order to prevent damaging allegations being brought to light. The Guildhall had previously imputed some unspecified fault on his part.
Ash, says the Guildhall, ‘is now engaged as a freelance orchestral conductor at Centre for Young Musicians, which is one of the school’s Guildhall Young Artists centres.’
A spokesperson for Guildhall told the Arts Professional site that the “matter that was due to be heard by the employment tribunal next week has concluded and the hearing will therefore not be proceeding”.
More here.
I honestly feel bad for the guy. We are involved in a very dirty business. I attended a top conservatory for six years but was not accepted for graduate study at the same school despite having played a very strong audition, which was verified by different professors as well as my accompanist. I wasn’t even wait listed…this almost never happens at this school. Turns out that one teacher that I had early on had his revenge. As a freshman, I left his studio because he would sleep during lessons and it was quite embarrassing to just stand there after I had finished playing…let’s just say that I took all repeats.
So much in this business is flipped upside down. I also have friends that are absolutely fantastic musicians but none of you will ever get to listen to because of all the corruption. One thing I don’t care for is how certain ethnic groups use big money to literally buy the stage/spotlight. One could literally go for a million years constantly on the “outside” when the game is rigged. And let me tell you…it’s rigged.
Sadly I feel like there is too much of a self flattering sense of false meritocracy at play in this particular country’s industry.
Sorry you had this experience at your conservatory. It’s really frustrating. I myself am struggling with this very issue, having won a position in a prestigious fellowship only to be told by every subsequent orchestra I have ever applied to in the country that it doesn’t count as “enough playing experience to be heard in our audition.” And it’s especially frustrating when in some cases these are literally jobs where the salary could afford me a house, a luxury I’m sure nobody my age would ever dream of having save for some godsend miracle.
Keep your head up, I’ve made the ultimate decision to exclusively audition outside this country (and by the looks of it with the current ACE/BBC double whammy, I might have made the correct choice). Elsewhere where classical music is much less of an in-group for the select few chosen by gatekeepers, those of us who didn’t follow the exact career path down to the detail will stand a chance to be heard.
Sorry to hear about your experiences. You certainly aren’t alone. I wasn’t invited to several orchestra auditions for the same reason yet there were younger people from my conservatory invited with zero professional experience. It was simply because their teachers were able to pull strings. So it’s pretty hard to believe what you are told when there is so much lying going on. I believe that people such as Mr. Raimi from the CSO do make an active effort to “do the right thing,” but they are simply a few good souls caught up in a very bad mess.
It’s my firm belief that UK orchestras should do away with the arbitrary job experience requirements for audition applicants. There are not enough jobs for every graduate to get the experience that is apparently required, and by shutting out applicants from auditioning because their CV lacks a certain ensemble.
One either has the playing skills or doesn’t, and that gets determined in the audition and then in the trial. At my last rejection from the CV round, I was told that 66 people applied for the position. Mr. Raimi at the CSO could probably attest that this is a very low number of applicants for a principal job in a major orchestra. They should have made the time to hear everyone, because these jobs only come up once in a lifetime and those of us who didn’t grow up with adequate access to playing opportunities but who otherwise are consistently told that we have a fighting chance in the industry due to our skill set, don’t in fact get this chance to prove ourselves. I had hoped that kicking up enough of a fuss to the right people might invoke some kind of systemic changes to how new musicians are allowed into the field, but I guess that’s too much to hope for…
This picture is Andrew Davies surely, is he involved?
I’m wondering the same thing… but in reverse… with Klaus Makela. He seems to have an army of glad-handers talking him up and claiming that he is “Second Karajan”, etc. It’s working! He ‘s now principal conductor of two major orchestras (and a third coming up). He’s 27 and nothing particularly noteworthy about him. I think he will flame out soon. But the praises continue unabashed. Any comments?