The Cleveland Orchestra, leaderless since David Radzynski resigned in March, has upgraded a recent member of the second violins to the title of first associate concertmaster.
Liyuan Xie, from Shanghai, joined the orchestra ten months ago. He studied with Miriam Fried at NEC in Boston.
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There’s a certain paradox to orchestras taking years to fill a principal position (whether concertmaster or horn), a good concertmaster is hard to find, but a good concertmaster is also dispensable, proof being that the orchestra managed quite well for years without one!
Conclusion is: orchestral in-fighting is preventing a selection, or orchestras are just being picky for pick’s sake
Alas, a good concertmaster can’t split his or her time as concertmaster for multiple top orchestras, à la conductors like Klaus, indeed, it’s easier to find a music director than a concertmaster, when there are a lot more violinists than there are conductors
A good example of completely missing the target while jumping to simplistic conclusions.
Orchestras that take forever to fill the concertmaster seat (or any other important position) usually don’t know what they want, or have very conflicted views among its members, a sign that they don’t have a unified conception of sound and style despite claims otherwise. Orchestras that *actually* have its unique sound don’t take forever to find a concertmaster.
That makes no sense at all.
His full name is Liyuan Xie.
Liyuan Xie. Not just “Xie.”
No doubt he’s an excellent musician. For now, it appears that he will be the acting concertmaster. Yet based on the press release, he has little major orchestra experience in that role and little major orchestra experience overall. In the last year, Cleveland lost a main, associate and assistant concertmasters. Draw your own conclusions.
Does anyone know if concertmaster auditions have been announced or will Franz just make a choice again?
Great orchestras like Cleveland work hard to maintain their reputation of excellence. Their highly selective auditions sometimes take years to fill a vacancy. It’s a tough process to maintain the highest quality of performance standards. One mistake in the process can have a devastating impact. That’s why there’s a long trial period before tenure is granted. Sometimes the period is amended if there’s no doubt. CSO principal horn recently.
The orchestra had a brilliant concertmaster in Radzinsky. I heard him in Israel with the IPO on many occasions before the pandemic and in Carnegie with the Cleveland Orchestra. A violinist with that kind of sound is rare
Starting to make sense now. Just one small clarification: when there is no doubt, there is no need to amend the trial period, but only to shorten it.
Peter Otto must be laughing about this, and I don’t blame him.