University fires half of the national string quartet
NewsVictoria University of Wellington has announced the resignation of Helene Pohl and Rolf Gjelsten, first violinist and cellist of the New Zealand String Quartet.
The married couple were accused of mismanaging ‘serious and sensitive issues’ and of unnamed conflicts of interest. No details have been released and the couple have not spoken.
From the brutal official statement: All parties want to acknowledge and apologise to those affected by these issues. As a result of these issues, Helene and Rolf felt it was in the best interests of everyone involved that they resigned with immediate effect. Their 30 years service with the Quartet is acknowledged.
It gets worse: ‘Where possible the Quartet intends to fulfil its remaining 2024 engagements and to present its 2025 season with the addition of special guest artists.’
Their profiles have been removed from the quartet’s website.
This seems exceptionally harsh. What did they commit – grand larceny? with guns?
“Their 30 years service with the Quartet is acknowledged.”
Ouch, someone get some ice to put on that burn.
The use of passive voice while omitting a nice adjective describing their service is…wow.
So what are these issues?
I could give you an easy multiple-choice test.
The University’s HR officer must have taken a dislike to them.
Referred to a bloke in a dress as ‘he’, almost certainly.
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Talk about cliff-hanger! This story seems incomplete…
Seems their manager, Eileen Dover, wouldn’t take the fall!
For the record, the photo accompanying this item shows Rolf Gjelsten and Gillian Ansell, the violist. Helene Pohl is rightmost on the main-page photo.
This is rather intriguing. I worked with them once… very kind people. That said, it is just not a great quartet. Big in NZ for sure, but that is like being hot in cleveland.
Just a reminder that a violinist in the Vienna Philharmonic, one Benjamin Morrison, is from New Zealand; born and bred into music in that country.
So, that’s 1 in 5.2 million. Better than the odds of any American, I’m betting. Even in the Berlin Philharmonic.
Technically, they resigned, so saying their “fired” is f*cked-up and the passive aggressive send-off is also f*cked-up. They were in the group for 30 years and some sensitive person probably just had their feelings hurt. Doesn’t mean they deserve this level of disrespect, certainly not without giving more details justifying it.
I gave up years ago going to their concerts largely because of the condescending lecture from the stage. We are not first year uni students.
Same thing happens in Australia, don’t worry.