Can Kim save the LA Phil?
OrchestrasThe Los Angeles has been spiralling headless, or worse, since Deborah Borda took a siren call from the New York Philharmonic seven years ago.
Borda’s successor, an Englishman from Seattle, lasted two years. He was followed by an inside promotion, a bullyboy suit who made the working atmosphere at Walt Disney Hall a good deal less agreeable than before. Chad Smith, his name was, and he was duly plucked in 2023 to save the ailing Boston Symphony. For the past nine months, the LA Phil has been run by an interim CEO who awarded new titles and pay hikes to senior VPs and got rid of several loyalists whom he distrusted.
This is the troubled organisation that Kim Noltemy, 55, will inherit in July. Can she turn it around?
Her track record is unblemished. At the Dallas Symphony she handled the Covid crisis with considerable flair while maintaining musical morale and leadership. She arrived as Jaap Van Zweden’s airy music directorship was ending and she replaced him with Fabio Luisi, an intensive, creative conductor who swiftly raised the voltage. Noltemy added the untested Gemma New as principal guest conductor, along with a number of social initiatives. The Dallas Symphony is said to be devastated by her sudden departure (she kept her LA Phil application strictly secret).
In LA she will see out the last two seasons of Gustavo Dudamel who said last night: ‘I look forward to welcoming Kim into our L.A. Phil family. Our extraordinary musicians and organization have shown the world a powerful new vision for what an orchestra can be, and how it can impact the community around it, and I am confident we will continue to push ourselves to even greater heights in the years to come.’
There is no like-for-like replacement for Dudamel. If Noltemy is to succeed, she will have to pull in a range of very different talents in a short space of time and see how they jell with the musicians. Some of the stronger characters in the orchestra have been drifting away in the past couple of years. The orchestra faces change in every department. It remains to be seen if the new chief can deliver where three others have wantonly failed.
She absolutely can. The real question, though, is WHO can build on her fine work in Dallas? Very very short list of excellent orchestra leaders, and it gets shorter every year. Devastation in Dallas indeed.
She has apparently done very well in Dallas, building a good team, hiring a new MD after ten years without artistic vision that left the orchestra terrorized and unhappy and the audience bored about bad programming. She pushed with initiatives for the community, a young musicians’ program and introducing diversity (apparently in a successful partnership with Fabio Luisi, the new MD) in the choice of soloists and conductors. The DSO will be able to continue to build on it. Luisi is said to be a strong, if reserved, leader and the team in the administration seems to be good. The board surely will find a good solution for her replacement.
“after ten years without artistic vision that left the orchestra terrorized and unhappy and the audience bored about bad programming.”
“…airy music directorship…”
The record needs to be corrected. I can’t speak for the DSO musicians, but as a longtime subscriber and Dallasite, I can tell you that audiences adored JVZ. I’ve never seen the hall as full as when he conducted Mahler and Wagner. And he’s widely credited with revitalizing the quality of the orchestra (which is why he got the job in NYC). He also had a home in Dallas and seemed genuinely interested in being part of the community (something that is not true of our current (excellent) music director).
Perhaps it’s the persistent drumbeat of negative press out of NYC that’s caused this impression … but the suggestions that the JVZ era in Dallas was a flop are revisionist history.
I don’t live in Dallas, but I know many DSO musicians, members of the audience and visitors. They still complain about JVZ and his abusive beheavior, arrogance and incompetence in programming. Happy to hear that there are other opinions. Anyway he wasn’t successful in NY, or in Cleveland, or in Chicago. And he still lived in Amsterdam during his tenure in Dallas. The present MD seems to be very successful and well liked by everybody. I also think he is an excellent conductor (I saw him recently in Cleveland, where the orchestra seemed to love him), and the programming is indeed innovative.
I just heard about a Ring Cycle started yesterday in Dallas with Rheingold, it seems to have been a huge success. Ambitious programming and artistic vision, the fact that she approved it, means that she is not backing away from artistic challenges! LA Phil is fortunate indeed.
She’s perhaps the best angel needed most at this time for the orchestra. Kim is a very rare breed indeed. We first met over 20 years ago when she worked at the Boston Pops. In 1997, we did the original 1924 piano part of Rhapsody in Blue with the existing 1942 orchestration, then premiered Charles Strouse’s Concerto America in 2002 and then Leroy Anderson’s Concerto in 2003. Her familiarity with vision and new music has always been one of her innate passions. She’s also a very special person. I remember when the Dallas Symphony brought her on board. “Smart move” was the buzz. Proved true. She knew how to put the best puzzle pieces in their proper spots. Staff, conductors, repertoire, initiatives, diversity with total inclusion without separation. During Covid, after Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed, I composed a solo piano piece about RBG and created a separate project about RBG with a commission by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. “Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg” brought in a poet joining Ellen’s music, and mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. But where to do this? First stop was the only stop – Kim Noltemy. Mind you, this was during the peak of Covid, but Kim envisioned the future. Not only did she respond immediately, she brought in her Artistic Administrator, Peter Czyornyi and they quickly added funding to what I had already acquired, and a date around the first anniversary of Ruth’s passing to do this. And, asked me to premiere my tribute to RBG as an encore, further orchestrated by Harrison Sheckler. That’s Kim Noltemy. In typical Kim style, she organized a beautiful post-concert outdoor tribute dinner to Ellen, and Jim Ginsburg (Ruth’s son) and his wife. That’s Kim. Yes, she is the one and only choice for LA, the future of the LA Phil, and will help the orchestra evolve as she has done everywhere she has been. Couldn’t be happier. The two most important words are respect and trust. She has both in abundance for everyone and applies them in everything she does, and has the respect and trust of everyone around her. Good luck, Kim. You don’t need the luck, because nobody does what you can do.
“Wantonly”? Oh, my.
“Ailing Boston Symphony”.. is that a remark about the unfortunate but very short stint of Gail Samuel? Because the orchestra was very sound (at least on the management side) under Volpe’s leadership
The BSO’s sound was as beautiful as ever when I last heard them live, a month ago, especially in the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan. I am sure Herr Doktor will agree.
Just because there was mention of “ailing” doesn’t mean the orchestra is in trouble. Have you noticed how often we come across this word?
I don’t think it’s accurate to call the LA Phil a “troubled organisation.”
Have there been problems in the last year? Sure.
But the orchestra is an overall healthy financial situation — no doubt most other orchestras are envious of its revenue streams outside of ticket sales and donations, such as from the properties it owns and manages.
Dudamel may be departing, but he leaves an orchestra that’s in great shape and an audience that loves their orchestra. And it doesn’t seem like the orchestra will have any problems hiring the MD it wants.
Completely agree. The idea that the wonderful LA Phil is in need of a savior is silly. Noltemy sounds like a great hire, though.
Yeah, it sounds like LA Phil will continue to be one of the best run, high functioning arts organizations.
2028 headline – “Kim Noltemy will be the Met’s next GM”
That would be the absolutely perfect pick. The only person alive able to save the Met.
They hardly need saving! Except for Boston, is there another orchestra in better financial shape??!!!
Chicago
It was likely a rhetorically question, but not Chicago whose revenue isn’t even in the top 5.
I didn’t think LA Phil needed ‘saving’. They’re doing just fine with their $billions in endowment and no tabloid scandals.
I will bet $50 dallas next LA Phil MD will be a korean woman.
If you’re thinking of Elim Chan (who is a worthy contender) for the post, she is ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong. My money is on either Elim Chan or Alondra de la Parra (a non-worthy contender).
Not Elim Chan, but Eun Sun Kim. Elim Chan is not in the next season lineup of guest conductors from which new MD will be chosen.
Notelmy should be an improvement over ex -frat boy Song who knows a lot more about sports than classical music. Having dealt with several execs there, I am appalled by their lack of knowledge of classical music.
I find it very telling that the LA Phil did not commemorate the 150th anniversary of Schoenberg’s birth. He spent the last 17 years of his life here.
The LAPhil will present Schoenberg’s glorious work, Gurre-lieder, in December. There are other Schoenberg performances scheduled for the 2024-25 season, too. A bit late, but who cares?
LA Phil is doing lots of Schoenberg next season including Gurrelieder (yay!)
Fyi, Schoenberg’s grandson is a practicing attorney in West L.A.
https://www.laphil.com/events/festivals-highlights/89
According to today’s LA Phil press release, Kim will occupy the “David C. Bohnett CEO Chair”. She formerly occupied the “Ross Perot President & CEO Chair” in Dallas. Mama mia that’s a lot of long-winded musical chairs!
Just a consequence of the high arts existence in the US plutocracy. Only a small disturbance, as long as the plutocrats are interested to put up the money for the most important things, namely things that humanity will remember with the passing of time: the arts.
…and the merry-go-round of shady administrators at US orchestras continues. Sketchy Gary Ginstling goes from Indy to National to NYPhil, Jonathan Martin from Dallas to Cincy, and now Noltemy from Boston to Dallas to LA. Etc. ad. inf.
As head of marketing in Boston, she made James Levine look really, really good as he was leching on young men around the world. Noltemy claims to be a champion of women, but boy was she silent when Elizabeth Rowe sued the Boston Symphony over sex discrimination. Noltemy was the COO at the time, and had direct purview over the situation. Noltemy has yet to speak about it.
The most telling thing: Noltemy kept her LA application a secret from everyone. Of course she did, just as Sketchy Gary did when the age discrimination lawsuit in Indianapolis threatened to torpedo his job prospects at the National Symphony. Orchestra presidents are supposed to represent the interests of the board, but for the last 20 years, these admins are happy to throw the organization under the bus if it advances their own personal interests.
The shady administrators who have been strangling the US orchestral industry have been using themselves as the template for what top admins should be. If the NYPhil implodes due to its current, self-inflicted crisis, perhaps orchestra boards around the country will finally break the cycle of recycling these mediocre, smarmy failed musicians-turned-administrators.
…and just wait until Dallas’s interim prez is announced; it may likely be one of the most incompetent and dishonest people in the industry.
“wantonly”? Huh?
Also of note, Norman: you mention that Noltemy had an “unblemished” record, but there was an article you posted in July 2018 for about one hour before you deleted it. It highlighted how (redacting a bit) a young, untenured employee was being forced out of her job due to having an affair with a powerful, married, and much older, tenured member of the orchestra. This was under the watch of Kim Noltemy, the “champion of women”. Noltemy is an embarrassment and a hypocrite.
LA Phil press release says Kim Noltemy will leave her Dallas “Ross Perot President & CEO Chair” to be the L.A. “David C. Bohnett CEO Chair”. That’s a lot of long-winded musical chairs!
BTW, last night at LA Phil I spotted Kim shaking hands with well wishers. It was a fantastic concert with Dudamel and pianist Maria Joao Pires. LA Phil is a trophy job for Kim (unlke San Fran). Don’t fix what ain’t broken.
LA is spiraling and the BSO ailing? Is this based on anything at all? Both are extremely solid organizations, financially and artistically.
Yeah LA is spiraling UP and UP.
Bullyboy for Chad Smith is the perfect description. Hated at the LA Phil. Staff are excited to welcome Kim and hopeful that she’ll work quickly to weed out the sycophantic Chad Smith team of overpaid top heavy senior management and acknowledge the understaffed team that actually do the work. Finally the LA Phil board has made a good choice.