Exclusive: NY Philharmonic eyes a woman president
OrchestrasWe’re hearing that talks with Philadelphia’s Matias Tarnopolski have stalled.
The new favourite to lead the New York Philharmonic is Marie-Hélène Bernard of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Some expect an announcement in the next couple of days.
Bernard has spent nine years in St Louis. Has she got the chops for NY? Guess we’ll know soon enough.
UPDATE: We do now.
She’s a… force of nature.
Can she get along with Dudamel? In St. Louis people think she drove out David Robertson and he’s never been back.
Perhaps driving out David Robertson wasn’t such a bad thing. He’s a pretty overrated conductor and musician.
Perfect choice if you want to clean house and do it again every 18 months.
So many female orchestra CEOs are notorious for epic staff turnover!!!
I look forward to a day when some people think that someone’s gender needs to be mentioned when they are appointed to a high post.
Or elected
If she comes to NYC, she won’t have to get in the weeds of dealing with the physical space for an orchestra. Geffen Hall is already complete.
She’s currently witnessing ongoing work for the buildings used by the St Louis Symphony.
https://youtu.be/e1OUZAuPZFI?si=TCA_NSUKS_p8qx0k
It’s interesting how various people are quite itinerant, such as Gustavo Dudamel, and will uproot themselves and move to entirely new cities or even new countries. So whether Bernard ultimately wants to end up in St Louis, NYC or her original home turf of Quebec is anyone’s guess.
NYC, however, is closer to eastern Canada than St Louis is.