Musician backlash as Israel orchestra board fires a conductor
OrchestrasPlayers in the Israel Chamber Orchestra have issued a public outcry after their board dismissed music director Ariel Zuckermann for no apparent reason.
They say:
We, the musicians of the Israel Chamber Orchestra (ICO), are shocked and saddened by the sudden, incomprehensible decision of our Board and management to terminate the contract of our musical director Ariel Zuckermann… He has brought immense artistic value to the Israel Chamber Orchestra, cultivating partnerships and bringing world class musicians to perform as guest artists with our orchestra. His commitment to excellence and his unwavering passion for music have significantly enriched our musicianship and performances, and inspired us to reach new orchestral heights. Ariel Zuckermann has the full and unanimous support of the ICO musicians. We are unwilling to accept his dismissal.
You can sign their reinstatement petition here.
I am happy to hear this news. Ariel is such an average conductor and has a very bad personality, a totally unacceptable person. I would never forget working with him in the orchestra, his interpretation was a embarrassing.
If the ICO musicians’ petition is indeed unanimous, as is claimed, then your view is hard to square with theirs.
Answering as the Concertmaster of the ICO: It is indeed unanimous.
There is more to this story, obviously.
Condcutors are hard to find.
I used to have a subscription to the ICO for three people. During tail end of covid they used to have restricted concerts of 50-70 minutes without a break instead of longer concerts with a break. This continued after all covid restrictions were lifted and eventually i spoke to their general manager who was there at one of the concerts. When i asked why she said everything was fixed a year ahead and could not be changed. When i challenged her on this, quite politely btw, she became very defensive and quite unpleasant. I couldn’t believe this is the way she treats her subscribers and we left them for the Jerusalem Camerata. I have no idea what happened with Zuckermann (who we quite liked musically) but one thing for sure, if that manager has problems with ico she will try to blame anyone but herself
Big loss. Ariel was a breath of fresh artistic air and had excellent chemistry with the orchestra
He was giving jobs in the orchestra to musicians who were smoking with him outside. No Audition needed, just some herb. Finally some justice
If you know who why don’t you just say who was it that he gave a job to ?
The Israelis do seem to be good at firing things.
Returning fire*
Particularly so if targets are in Gaza Shame.
I wonder why they didn’t consult with the orchestra musicians, and why this was announced without a warning.