Bruckner suspends two bosses
OrchestrasThe Brucknerhaus in Linz has removed artistic director Dietmar Kerschbaum and commercial director Rainer Stadler over alleged misdeeds in office.
No specific reason has been given. One rumoured cause is the outsourcing of artistic decisions last year to an international artists agency.
The timing of the suspensions could not be more embarrassing. The concert hall is entering its 50th season, the composer his bicentenary.
“No specific reason has been given” is not true – the list of reasons and serious accusations is in fact shockingly long – see here (in german): https://kurier.at/chronik/oberoesterreich/linz/brucknerhaus-ooelinz-kerschbaum-aufsichtsratlugerentscheidung/402820444
Some excerpts, I just quote:
– Kerschbaum got the questions for his hearing 2017 secretly already one day before, anonymously
– there were repeated self-employments as a singer in his own house always with very attractive fees
– the artistic planning, one of his main duties as artistic director (for which he also had a big staff) was ‘outsourced’ to an external agency, Opus 3 Artists which is naturally a conflict of interest
– questionable personal manners and attitude towards his team
– wasteful with resources and poor economic success.
quite a lot of reasons … https://www.derstandard.de/story/3000000211886/linzer-brucknerhaus-intendant-bis-auf-weiteres-freigestellt
The opera house which is the home of the bruckner orchester linz was more recently built. The concert house in linz is not affiliated with the orchestra. While they do play concerts sometimes, its not their home