Just in: HK Philharmonic chief quits
OrchestrasIt has just been announced that Benedikt Fohr, Chief Executive of the HK Phil since April 2019, will leave next July.
Fohr, 60, was previously head of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern.
He recently signed the young Finn Tarmo Peltokoski as HK’s next music director, starting mid-2026.
I know no more than anyone else but it does seem possible that there could be one of three reasons.
1. Another position opening up in Europe for which he has been head hunted, although nine months notice is pretty long.
2. Disappointment with the recent MD appointment. After all, was he not quoted earlier in the year expressing his disappointment that another more established international conductor had turned down the MD job?
3. Local politics including major disappointment that the massively delayed and vastly over-budget West Kowloon Cultural District still has no new concert hall planned to replace the desperately poor one in the HK Cultural Centre. The HK Phil really needs a hall with much better acoustics and facilities to call its own.
I hated the Cultural Centre. I lived in HK when it opened, and had a hard hat tour. I couldn’t believe a venue on that harbour was built without windows. And for serious arts performances — dance and music — I vastly preferred the HKAPA.
I was there in the early 90s, and most recently a few years ago. The bathrooms are an insult to patrons. The acoustics in the main concert hall are awkward, to say the least.
Tarmo will fit right in.
The City Hall bathrooms were even worse.
I’ve been in the Centre twice this year and the men’s bathrooms were perfectly adequate although on the small side in the upper tier! I wish the Concert Hall acoustics were as adequate. Far worse is the Concert Hall’s upstairs seating where anyone over around 1.65. has absolutely zero room to move their legs. Disastrous!
Generally not known now is that the government’s Chief Architect had asked Theatre Projects in London to design the Cultural Centre’s interiors. But their design professionals loathed the exterior design and begged the Chief government Architect to make it larger. Just as he refused to add windows, he refused to change the vast public toilet-looking exterior shape. Consequently neither venue is anything like ideally suited for their purposes.
On some lame excuse, TP were fired from the project and the government architects office took over. As none knew anything about sophisticated arts venues, the result became what now exists – a near disaster. I see there are many detailed reasons for this in a new book “Backstage in Hong Kong” published by Blacksmith Books. The Hong Kong government and its agencies come out of it with little credit.
Totally agree about the Lyric and Drama Theatres in the HK Academy for Performing Arts. Beautifully designed theatres by experts – not amateurs.
Mr Fohr has long lost the support from the musicians, admin staff and the board, so this announcement came as no surprise. The seasons under his leadership have been uninteresting and disorganized.
My thought is you blame the wrong person. The Hong Kong Phil has had an MD and and an Artistic Administrator who together select repertoire and plan seasons programmes. I doubt the CEO had much in any input.