Don’t I just look like Mahler?

When Stanisław Skrowaczewski was musical advisor to the Milwaukee Symphony when it was between music directors, we used to hear quite a bit of him of course and there were times when in profile he had (in my opinion) as astounding likeness to Mahler, the older Mahler that is.

The really interesting story about this conductor is this:

https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/A2020070513490004026

Article from July 6th, 2020

[Exclusive] Mayor of Bucheon and conductor of Bucheon Municipal Orchestra accused of unfair labor practices

published 2020.07.06 04:30, revised 2020.07.06 09:05

Photo 1
Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra during a performance, provided by Bucheon City Arts Center

Mayor Deok-cheon Jang, Mayor of Bucheon, and orchestra conductor affiliated with the city of Bucheon were accused of unfair labor practices

On July 5th the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union, the Gyeongi Province Culture Arts Branch, and the Bucheon Municipal Arts Complex (further on Arts Complex) sued Mayor Jang and ‘Conductor A’ of the Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra (further on Bucheon Phil) for alleged violations of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act. They also filed a request for relief from unfair labor practices with the Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission.

In the complaint these groups filed that “‘Conductor A’ made remarks that denounced, abused, and expressed his hostile perceptions of union activities through his public Facebook page, as well as Kakao Talk messages and phone calls with members of the union.” In front of the members he threatened there would be an installation of yearly evaluation auditions among other negative consequences.

Further in the complaint the groups filed that “it is unfair labor practice to control or intervene in the union organization, operations and activities” and that
“Mayor Zhang neglected to prevent the unfair labor practices”.

From the 88 members of the Bucheon Philharmonic, 83 joined the Arts Complex on February 11 this year, when there was talks that the Bucheon City Arts Group consisting of Bucheon Philharmonic and Bucheon City Choir would be changed to a foundation. Previously, only the city choir had been unionized.

Photo 2
Conductor A of Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra, Gyeonggi Province, is throwing one of the transparent screens, installed in front of the conductor stand, towards the audience seats during a rehearsal on July 2nd. Photo capture of a video provided by Bucheon City Arts Complex.

An official of the Arts Complex said that Mr. A called the union leaders, who were working to cope with the instability of employment and deterioration of working conditions, commercialization and deterioration of publicity, ‘cancerous existences’. On the past July 2nd during a rehearsal the conductor in rage was throwing a transparent shield towards the audience seats and shocked and created an atmosphere of fear for the orchestra members, among them also pregnant women.

An official from the City of Bucheon said that “the foundation, which is currently in the process of being established, is an organization to operate the Bucheon Culture and Arts Center, which will be completed in 2022, and has not yet been approved by Gyeonggi-do” and that “I received a notice from the Labor Office that a complaint was filed, but I am trying to figure out the exact details.”.

Conductor A said that “Bucheon City is building a new hall (Culture and Arts Center) with a lot of budget, which is like building an exclusive hall for the Bucheon Philharmonic and I wanted to share my vision with the orchestra members but it is very unfortunate that it was percepted as a coersion and even rumored as labor suppression.” He further said that he “was reflecting as a conductor on revealing my emotional side and giving uncomfortable speech to the union branch, for which I apologized”.