Shunned black player wins tenure in Chicago
OrchestrasWe hear that the percussionist Josh Jones, denied tenure in the Kansas City Symphony, has been awarded permanent status in Chicago’s Grant Park Orchestra.
Grant Park wrapped up its season this weekend with a triumphant closure for music director Carlos Kalmar, who successfully contested false allegations at his other post in Cleveland.
Here’s a last night review.
Grant Park is a summer pick up group.
It’s actually an ICSOM orchestra with national auditions and real pay compared to all the other summer festivals that are invite only/popularity contests with poor pay. Unfortunately it doesn’t have health insurance for Mr. Jones. There was no way he wasn’t going to get tenure there because one of his former teachers is in his section. Let’s hope he can get his shit together and win another full time gig.
Unfortunately the “shit” seems to be attached at the hip
The Met is a backup band.
Congratulations, Josh, and only the BEST to you and your future! Kansas City’s loss is CHICAGO’S BIG GAIN!! The cream always rises to the TOP!!!
A bit premature to say he’s reached the TOP, given his apparent potential? This is the Grant Park orchestra, not the Chicago Symphony. I doubt he is content with making a fraction of his salary in Calgary and Kansas City.
Grant Park looks really good from the rest of the summer scene-great season, apparent competent management, conducting, membership and audience enthusiasm? If outdoor conditions are tolerable, and the contract is reasonably humane.
The Grant Pk Orch. is only a summer job. Josh still lacks a major gig.
Shocker, his former teacher is in the section at Grant Park and was probably heading that committee. Did anyone think he was going to throw Josh out on the street?
Yes… I attend many Grant Park concerts. The orchestra is excellent. Not at the Chicago Symphony level but excellent. Josh just doesn’t seem to be able to play together with the rest of the orchestra. Obvious even to an idiot like myself. Big drop off from the former Principal there. Too bad. Hope he gets it together
It’s a festival orchestra made up of musicians from more than a dozen other orchestras which don’t have summer series of their own. I don’t think anyone is comparing it to the Chicago Symphony, nor are they often asked to choose between the two.
Congratulations to Mr. Jones on this achievement, but it will not be forgotten how you cried wolf and took zero accountability in regards to your failed tenure at the Kansas City Symphony.
The field is well aware that you will use any tactics necessary to make it seem like the denial of tenure in Kansas City was due to racism and not based in job performance.
You attempted to destroy the image and integrity of former colleagues, management, and leadership. What you did is unacceptable.
Amen to this. The number of musicians who fail to admit just because you’re black does not automatically make you a better musician than everyone else.
He should sue the KCS
The KCS and Stern should sue him for defamation.
Absolutely right! Getting smacked down to size in court would be an excellent way to end this ridiculous saga.
I see three possibilities when compared to the KCS saga.
1) Either Josh dramatically stepped up his game in terms of how he ran the section
2) The standards in Grant Park are lower
3) Grant Park didn’t want the negative publicity KCS had and took the easy way out
I am guessing 3 with the poisonous racial atmosphere in that city.
Who cares- more woke joke us empire – Anglo nonsense
He will be in his element in Chicago.
How can so many of you allegedly so sincere replicants on this issue be so blind to the blatantly covert (and now overt!) RACISM that Josh has been subjected to in this matter? How many superbly talented creative artists throughout history have discriminated against and promotionally penalized simply because they were “different”? Josh is an extraordinarily talented musician — I’d even go so far to say “World Class” — who has unfortunately and undeservedly gotten a “bad rap” that so many of you are quick to pounce on him for without bothering you investigate the TRUTH! Shame on all of you for your uninformed and hasty condemnations!
Calm down, ma’am. Many of us have researched this incident and chosen to believe Josh wasn’t the best fit for what KC needed in a principal percussionist. Josh then took his case to social media and won a pyrrhic victory (at best): good musician,but a challenging section mate who played the race card against his employer.
Doesn’t matter if he is right or wrong: any future employer will hesitate to bring a problematic employee onboard.
I’m not a replicant, nor will I use uppercase to make a point.
There was absolutely no racism in the KCSO situation. What investigation have you done, Zarathusa? Have you spoken to any members of the KCSO as some of us have, or are you relying on hearsay or the one-sided nonsense that’s been printed in newspapers and blogs? I would wager that many of us know better about what happened in KC than you do.
In my orchestra, we receive no written correspondence/feedback during the entirety of our tenure review—there is simply a meeting after one year, a vote, and that’s it. Our orchestra has denied tenure to any number of players. KCSO offers written feedback during the review process, and as I understand it, Mr Jones had a longer review process and received more written feedback than was necessary per their contract. If he learned from that situation and rectified those shortcomings, then bully for him! Grant Park will be pleased to have him. Sounds like the process worked.
For all of you who, based on the tone of your comments, clearly have won multiple national auditions yourselves and are actually undiscovered experts in the field of orchestral tenure, what makes you feel the need to comment out into the world? I also think it’s worth mentioning that every comment on this website is moderated and approved by Norman. Which means that he is CHOOSING to support all of this nonsense because it drives up his website’s traffic. Maybe think about that before you pat yourself on the back for another “comment”.
Ah, sweet irony…
Didn’t stop you, anonymous internet denizen, from wading into the waters to drop your comment log on the rest of us.
What are you, 12 years old? Such an embarrassingly immature mentality. “yOu’Re nOt aLLoWeD tO cOmMeNt uNleSs yOu’Re aN ‘eXpErT.” This fallacy is known as “appeal to authority.” Get it together.
Josh should be suing the Kansas City Symphony for racism. Why isn’t he doing this?
Gee, makes ya wonder, don’t it, Barb?
Because Mr. Jones is well aware that KCS has full receipts documenting the tenure denial grounds and multiple opportunities he was given along the way to address the issues.
To add, as noted in prior discussions, the issues were work habitswork performance related, but also involved an unwillingness to step back and conform musically. A wish to stand out more fitting for a solo artist or bandleader than a cog in the wheel.
That’s easy to empathize with–the soul-killing side of the “velvet coffin” of the supposedly so enviable orchestra gig is not enough discussed. In that world, “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down,” as the Japanese aphorism goes. Not every artist is cut out for that life.
But that mandatory conformity is a job requirement for everyone, not racism. Your skin color does not exempt you from that. If you don’t like it, you can always wait tables to support your creative endeavors.
I predict we are about to see a 10-fold increase in the amount of “unscreened” percussion auditions. Orchestras would be wise to get out ahead of this.
If he got tenure in Calgary and was the first black tenured member of that orchestra as HE HIMSELF stated, why isn’t he going back there?
He wasn’t tenured in Calgary. He left the orchestra before his probation period expired.
But then why did he announce publicly that he got tenure? I even saw other orchestras sharing it on social media.
Because “the shit is attached to the hip” with him. A bullshit artist.
There will be more fun times in Kansas City since they just hired a new principal trombone who wasn’t able to show up for work at their last job in Washington DC. Buckle up!
Congratulations! Some of you need to open your mouths and congratulate someone. These music commentators suck.