Exclusive: Berlin Phil player starts private orchestra in Poland
OrchestrasThe privately owned Cavatina Hall in Bialsko-Biala will have its own orchestra performing 30 concerts every year. The music director is Stanley Dodds, long-serving violinist in the Berlin Philharmonic.
He has called auditions for players in June (details here). The inaugural concert is scheduled for September 2024.
Dodds, 54, was born in Canada and grew up in Australia. He received tenure in the Berlin Phil under Claudio Abbado in 1994 and remains listed among its players, although he is also principal conductor of the Sinfonieorchester Berlin.
The Polish venture breaks new ground both for him and for music in Poland.
That is possibly the reason why I noticed in the BPO season 2024/25 brochure that he is not listed among the 2nd violins in the coming season. I wondered about that, but considering his career as a conductor, this is not a surprise for me.
On the website his name is there but not – oddly – his photo. But neither of these jobs would seem to be enough to prevent him from keeping the day job.
The only question that arises here is who will drag the conductor’s profession even deeper into the abyss, he or his Viennese second violin colleague Koncz.
Is his conducting really that bad? Building a professional orchestra from scratch is even more demanding than waving your hands in front of world class Berlin musicians who can do anything whatever you do, especially in standard repertoire. So I wonder…
The Sinfonieorchester Berlin should not be confused with the proper orchestras in Berlin.
https://www.konzertdirektion-hohenfels.de/philharmonie-berlin/#sinfonie_orchester_berlin
It is quite bad in fact. I played under him.
He is very good at contemporary music. ..I played a program under him…Very charismatic and nice person,too.
The usual GDR armchair conductor bull….
Koncz is a cellist…
Stephan Koncz is a cellist (Berliner Philharmoniker). His brother Christoph Koncz is a violonist (former principal second violin, Wiener Philharmoniker). Christoph Koncz is now chief conductor of the orchestra of Mulhouse.
There is two Koncz brothers. One is Christoph – current conductor and former Vienna Phil’s principal 2nd violin and other is Stephan – cellist in Berlin Phil.
Norman, can we have a world’s worst conductors thread? I have a few names to add…
Isn’t he also the Chief Conductor of the Sydney Youth Orchestra?
https://slippedisc.com/2023/07/berlin-phil-violinist-becomes-chief-conductor-in-australia/
I only know Stanley as a violinist first hand – whatever my view, you are unlikely to be a lousy violinist if you were confirmed as a member in the BPO. As a conductor at least he has some initiative and makes things happen – haters who go on and on about these people present no alternative and risk the business being reliant on gov money. Look where that got us in the UK!!