It appears that Josh Jones, who was refused tenure on the music director’s orders at Kansas City Symphony, has now been removed from the orchestra’s roster.
Nothing about this saga has been transparent or well-managed.
The cellist has let rip in an interview…
The conductor was asked a direct question by…
From my latest essay in The Critic: Days…
press release: (Worcester, MA -May 3, 2024) With…
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Throwing chum in the water?
Josh was consistently unorganized, did not manage his section properly, failed to properly assign parts and report them to the personnel manager for hiring subs, left his section’s percussion room a mess, and had issues playing together with other parts in the orchestra. Very conventional reasons for any musician to not receive tenure.
All of this was explicitly clear to him from his multiple, extended tenure reviews, and every part of the process is spelled out in Kansas City’s CBA.
And he was removed from the website? Stunning, considering that he is no longer employed by the Kansas City Symphony.
Is a more transparent process having the orchestra publicly pile on Josh and spell out all the reasons he was denied tenure? Would that be a good thing for anyone involved? Or would it just be more fun for everyone to read and gossip about? Josh is not here to be entertainment. He is a human being.
Are we done with this?
Sadly, this seems to be a blind spot those using social media to drum up outrage don’t see. The reason why these decisions are not aired publicly is to protect everyone involved, including the candidate for tenure. From what I am seeing, Black Orchestral Network is not seeing the harm they are contributing to the very candidates they are trying to help. There is so many layers of harm, but the most obvious one being, if you decide to air your grievance publicly, you risk your flaws as perceived by your colleagues, being made public, potentially harming your future career and the opportunity to move on and learn from your experience. Everyone should remember, there is always a majority of musicians on these tenure panels, who deem this to be the right choice for the orchestra. This is not merely a whim of one or two individuals. For these musicians, it means making the choice they will potentially have to live with for decades. The industry needs to distance itself from Black Orchestral Network which is doing harm to everyone.
Also, consider how this publicity and images of people likely involved in the decision, who presumably voted their artistic opinion as part of their job, is affecting them.
+100
Congrats to you for having fun piling on Josh all on your own. Very cleverly done
Unfortunately, we will never be “done” with the problem of racism in America and current events only reveal that the problem is becoming worse and even more virulent. “He is a human being.” Yes, but was Josh treated like a human being? This highly talent musician who was even recently lauded in writing by Maestro Stern and other members of the KCS Board has mysteriously been stripped of his dignity and denied tenure for no justifiable reasons. Shame on KCS for their deplorable actions!
Where I come from we have a saying, something along the lines of “he who wants a dog beat will always find a stick”. As long as you want to see it as a racial decision you will, at the same time I don’t see you anyone here screaming racism at CSO for not giving tenure to a white dude Cooper, which is lot more shocking and shameful
Josh was treated exactly as any of his colleagues were, are, and will be treated. In fact, he was given extra time for his review, a privilege which had never been extended to the former white and Asian members who were denied tenure in KCSO in the past.
“left his section’s percussion room a mess”
Really? . . . Other members of the percussion section aren’t responsible for how they return equipment to the room? Maybe he was tired of picking up after them. I would assume that they already had a layout and a routine in place.
“and had issues playing together with other parts in the orchestra”
At the professional level? . . . That’s nonsense, and you know it. He never would have been a member of a major American symphony to begin with, if that were even remotely true.
” Very conventional reasons for any musician to not receive tenure”
No, you listed two very good reasons why someone wouldn’t have been offered the job in the first place, much less even been chosen to come audition. If what you’re saying is, in fact, true (which I rather doubt), then your orchestra botched the audition process to begin with . . . . . and in the future, clean up in the percussion room after yourselves. Even at college, where I played both tuba AND percussion (depending on which group), we were ALL responsible for the organization of a very filled-in percussion room – not just some assigned principal.
> “and had issues playing together with other parts in the orchestra”
>At the professional level? . . . That’s nonsense, and you know it. He never would have been a member of a major American symphony to begin with, if that were even remotely true.
Clearly you are not a member of a major (or even minor) American symphony. Auditions don’t test ensemble skills.* It is probably the most common reason people don’t receive tenure, or aren’t hired from a trial. Note placement, matching colleagues interpretations, adjusting to conductors, playing with appropriate volume — none of that can be tested in a solo audition.
* Some auditions will include an ensemble round, but this is impossible if the screen is kept up the whole time as Sphinx recommends. They also discourage trial weeks.
From Sphinx: “ Information gleaned during trial weeks could be obtained through the audition process or during the probationary period.”
Guess what happened here? Information that was not obtained through the audition process was gleaned during the probationary period. What happened to Josh is a consequence of eliminating ensemble playing from the audition process.
Actually, those are two things for which an audition does not test at all.
Uhhh… you know nothing. I have been witness to many denials of tenure in my long career due to lack of ensemble skills. Winning an audition is one thing. Playing with an orchestra is another. That’s why there’s a tenure process. As to the percussion room?.. It takes a team to keep those kinds of spaces organized. If even one member of that team leaves the space a mess after their work, it ruins it for everyone. ESPECIALLY if that person is the principal. People such as yourself should stop commenting on matters about which they know nothing. Such is the mess that has been made out of this very common ordeal.
This is why percussion principal emeritus of the Dallas SO, Douglass Howard, wrote and open letter to the national community of orchestral musicians outlining why Josh Jones tenure denial was so suspect and sketch. The other members of the KCSO might chime in about “what a slouch” Josh was in their eyes, but that’s because they are so obtuse. If Doug Howard says it was B.S., then I’ll believe him 6 days a week and twice on Sunday.
Doug has expressed regret over writing the letter. Ask him yourself. He was simply taken advantage of by Josh. In fact, many principals of major US orchestras were contacted to write a letter or publicly express support for Josh, which they declined. That speaks volumes.
It was not on the “orders” of the Music Director. The entire panel took a vote, Josh did not get the votes. His tenure vote had been extended several times – no other musician got the number of opportunities as Josh had. That was something the tenure panel decided to do themselves, because we wanted him to succeed. Every time he was given feedback, he got extremely defensive and then was not on speaking terms with some of his colleagues.
As for the comment on transparency, and mismanagement. Audition proceedings are not public, it is a confidential process. People that are not in possession of the full facts and had no personal dealings with Josh’s tenure proceedings as it pertains to the KCS have no business commenting on this.
Just because our curiosity wants to be satisfied doesn’t mean that we have a right to know about private employment agreements. #mindmyownbusiness
Maybe all orchestras should be forced (by law) to have the same percentage of ethnicities as it’s surrounding community. That way, I won’t need to attend the concerts to get a special, virtuous feeling inside.
Maybe one should learn to punctuate.
Cry baby. He didn’t get tenure, so it’s a natural order that his name would be removed from the roster. Keeping this relevant has gotten tired. Subway is always hiring sandwich artists.
No PLEASE!!! I love Subway!
An extremely defensive person won’t last at Subway or anywhere else for that long. An insider here said that he was given many chances as they wanted to see him succeed. Although I’m not involved with the situation, I’m so happy that we finally had some insiders and others who are connected with the KCS speak out. It’s absolutely ridiculous for individuals and groups with agendas to be pulling the race card each time something doesn’t go their way. In fact, this behavior backfires on them because then people start thinking that the stereotypes (that they have low IQs and lack emotional control) are in fact true.
Norman, this is normal housekeeping, but nice try. His contract ended 6/27.
There are many non-members of the orchestra that are also not on their website. What a scandal.
Now, as in the years 1937-45, one cannot (as a person of conscience) and should not separate character from deeds.
It is standard practice to remove the names of former members from orchestra rosters, ie to only keep current members’ names on rosters.
Additionally, let’s consider what kind of precedent it would create if a major organization gave in to pressure from social media and bloggers, ie from those with no stake in the matter (save for need for virtue signaling), about who it gives employment to, or not, and if such decisions and reasons for them had to be made fully public, transparent, essentially asking for them to be réversible if the mob decides, basically the right of others to ultimately decide for you. You want this to become standard practice?
Did you stop and think before you wrote this headline? Any number of musicians each year fail to secure tenure.
+100
betcha 100-1 a racial discrimination suit is coming in 2 weeks.
… which doesn’t necessarily mean it has any merit whatsoever.
it certainly looks like someone who shall remain nameless is trying his best to make it happen here
Starts in “T” and ends in “itis”
Side effects include a swelling of the brain
His contract wasn’t renewed. This is what happens in every other orchestra when someone doesn’t receive tenure. Time to move on.
Josh was “erased” because he did not receive rights of renewal. This is common place in the industry. It’s brutal, but it’s the reality.
“ Nothing about this saga has been transparent or well-managed.” It’s not their place to divulge details of the probation process or details on WHY he was not given tenure, despite the mob beating down the door on here. The probationary process, which needs improved in KC, no doubt, is not for the world to see.
You can stir up shit on here, BON can kick and scream all they want and try to bully the KCS into taking him back, but Josh was not up to the standard of the KCS. If he’s as good as everyone says he will have no issue winning another job. Hopefully he will work on his managerial skills and the necessary skills to run a successful percussion section by then. There’s more than just playing the right notes.
Downvote this to hell and back because you all know better, by all means.
Can we as comment-ators refrain from using the word sh*t in our future comments?I, for one, “Wouldn’t say sh*t even of I had a mouth full of it”! May I suggest using the more cultured word DEFICATE if you need a verb and DEFICAND to indicate a noun? Thanks!
There is no such word as ‘deficate’ and even more so no such word as ‘deficand’. You possibly mean ‘defecate’ for the verb and ‘defecation’ for the noun.
Did anyone else besides Zarathusa get the vapors reading that comment from Anonymous?
… Hearing no one, let’s move on to the next piece of business.
Not been funni lyke, but my nan say’s you dont need word’s wot are so embarrising.
Are you kidding me? Is this a tabloid magazine? Musicians who aren’t in the orchestra are not on the roster. This drama show has to stop. There was another person who was denied tenure in KC who deserved to be given a second chance, and it CERTAINLY wasn’t Josh. That person was also removed from the website. Where’s the outrage?
Oh come on, Silly Willy! The other candidate was never talked about because he’s not a minority. It’s 2023…get with the program!
Apparently “going to far” is an unknown phrase to our “editor”.
Unknown to a plethora of readers too perhaps.
The title of the article reads “Black Percussionist is Erased…”. ERASED is definitely an extremely poor choice of words in this racially charged context but, thank God, the writer didn’t choose the word LYNCHED. And why focus on Josh’s Blackness unless race could possibly be in some way at issue here? Could you imagine the title “White Percussionist Erased…”? That would be just as inappropriate and equally racist! There is much more going on here than meets the eye! The need to keep “employment decisions” secret is indefensible especially when transparency would help to eliminate needless controversy.
Imagine if this post had a simply factual title like: “the bio of a musician who was denied tenure is no longer on the orchestra website”, and try to answer this question: how many people would have read (and commented on) such post?
What sort of article is this when it omits the most important feature of this story?: why was Josh Jones removed? The title of this article seems to be nothing other than click-bait, offering the prospect of a nice, juicy story about racism and cancel culture, when it appears, judging by some of the other comments here, to be nothing more than a routine matter.
You lose credibility by doing this: if the matter was entirely routine, probably the article shouldn’t even have written at all; but if there an important or newsworthy aspect to it, the headline should indicate that at least briefly, and the story should not leave out its most important feature: the reason behind the “cancelling” it is ostensibly about.
Details about the relationship between employee and employer are strictly confidential,and should never be available to the public,often also for the benefit of the employee….Details about the tenure proceedings and judgements even could harm his future career. Furthermore,as you may know,each employee(not only in a musical institution) has to sign a contractual clause concerning the obligation zo maintain secrecy about the internal matters in your working place. In the case of nonobservance you are at risk of serious legal consequences…Specific details about the evaluation of an employee are not the subject of exposure to the public…Alas,from what i heard from a timpanist friend in an US top orchestra(not the KSC) ,there were professional issues with Mr.Jones…He seems to be more kind of a brilliant solo performer, less of an orchestra player.
“…the day when my children are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” When Dr. King said this, did he mean for everyone or did he mean only for those of color; if you’re not of color, it’s OK to judge you by the color of your skin? I don’t think so. But those who are outraged by this sort of thing and are proponents of “I will only consider someone of color as a candidate for appointment,” must believe that’s what Dr. King intended!
No one has mentioned yet that one of the authors of the Sphinx/NAAS Tenure Guidelines (often cited by entities such as BON to criticise Kansas City’s tenure procedures) is in fact the Principal Horn of the Kansas City Symphony. I do not know if Mr Suarez was on Mr Jones’ tenure committee or not, but the idea that the Kansas City Symphony maintains a hostile or racist culture is preposterous.
The sheer ignorance of the voices of outrage surrounding this matter has been repulsive. I have been a principal player in multiple major orchestras and have served on countless committees in my time – which is the only way to effectively be able to imagine yourself in the room with the people who were charged with making this decision. The gravity of this kind of decision, particularly in these times, leads to many sleepless nights. These people knew they were going to take hell. They granted multiple extensions to the musician’s review period, desperate for him to figure it out. I have been there. Recently in fact…
Ticking the “no” box when the bell finally tolls, knowing full well that there is no mechanism for revealing the contributing factors behind the outcome, is the most troubling experience for a review committee member. No one wants to be in that position. Trust me when I say that the tone of these kinds of review meetings is quite somber. Add to the challenge of it all that you are now labeled as a racist, by countless people who know NOTHING of the circumstances, except for what the tenure candidate has been allowed to say – which is, of course, ANYthing they WISH to say.
This guy had issues from day one, and they didn’t improve. By accounts from within the orchestra, separate from the review committee, they apparently got worse. Put yourself in the shoes of the people who had to serve in the thankless review process. They deserve a bit of consideration.