Breaking: Boston Symphony has a new boss
mainThe Boston Symphony Orchestra has just announced Gail Samuel as its next President and Chief Executive Officer, starting in June.
She succeeds Mark Volpe.
A Deborah Borda protégée in Los Angeles, Samuel is currently president of the Hollywood Bowl and Chief Operating Officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
This is a really good call for Boston.
Congratulations to Gail. Gail was on my staff during my time as CEO of the Minnesota Orchestra and has been in key positions with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for many years. She is a talent .
I remember her then — she was great.
Gail, welcome to Boston! As a 30+ year subscriber of the BSO, let me say that we’re thrilled to have you among us and leading our great orchestra.
What an excellent choice! Congratulations Gail, and congratulations to the BSO!!
Mr. Alexander: a valiant President should not let a Music Director run amok and deface the legacy of a once glorious Orchestra. You know you can trust me on this.
This is such great news. Gail is a great leader and a great colleague. The BSO could not have made a better choice. Congratulations to all concerned.
As this is a serious question, it deserves a serious answer:
Alondra de la Parra
Any sense of who they’ll get to replace Andris when he probably leaves in less than 5 years?
Ooops…I replied to the wrong posting. To repeat:
As this is a serious question, it deserves a serious answer.
The answer is…. Alondra de la Parra
Is this another scoop from the enterprising reporter who announced a few years ago that no one, save for a few people in Baltimore, remembered who Leon Fleisher is?
Brilliant choice! Gail is a superstar and will keep the BSO shining brightly. Congratulations Gail !!!
THE NYT has called the LA Phil “the most important orchestra in the US”, and as its alumni spread out across America to take the reins of the Big 5 and others (NYP, BSO, etc), the LA management and programming philosophy will become the dominant model in the US.
Boston, with its endowment and Tanglewood, is most poised to replicate the LA model.
Will that be enough to save American orchestras post-Covid?
It’s very clear that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is the most important orchestra in the US. Also it has the most important leader and conductor. There really isn’t that much classical music on the west coast.
I completely disagree. The Los Angeles Phil. and San Francisco Symphony both pay far more than the CSO, have terrific conductors (the guy in Chicago is usually elsewhere and doesn’t play any American music at all), plus Seattle has a fine orchestra. Sorry, the money is out West and increasingly in the South and not in the rust belt. Innovation is also coming from the West.
Seattle has been ruined by BLM/Antifa. They have more serious problems than who conducts the orchestra.
Patricia, your wild assertions are intolerable. Please desist from posting on this site.
You’re being facetious, right?
Chicago Symphony was best under Solti. Those halcyon days are long gone. The Lyric Opera is mostly doing musicals nowadays. Sad.
LOL, are you kidding? LA Phil/Dudamel, SF/Salonen. LA Opera /Conlon, SF Opera/Eun Sun Kim, Seattle Symphony, San Diego: the west coast is on the forefront of American orchestral life…… it’s just a lil more spread out.
Would that be news to the LAPO/Dudamel and SFSO/Salonen? Seattle SO, LA Opera, San Francisco Opera…
Clear as mud.
Sure.
If the CSO was important (I am not even saying “the most important”), you would see scores of principals from top US Orchestras trying to get in when there’s an audition. But the exact opposite is happening. None of them are showing up for auditions, the candidates are very mediocre and Riccardino had to resign himself to pick a first trumpet from … Granada. The CSO is done and the renewal of Muti’s contract through 2024 (agreed upon) the nail to the coffin.
You seem kinda dumb.
I wouldn’t trust the NYT on anything.
The NYT called the Hollywood Bowl a “band shell”.
“She is also president of the Hollywood Bowl, the band shell that serves as the Philharmonic’s lucrative summer home, supplying much of its revenue.”
What a joke the NYT arts coverage now is.
Gosh, it seems the LA Phil has a problem holding on to people. I wonder why?
It had no “problem holding on to” Gail Samuel for thirty years, so it seems like in that particular department the organization is doing fine so far.
It isn’t the place it was 30 years ago. Or even 15.
A “Deborah Borda protégée”, really? By the time DB arrived in 2000, Gail Samuel already rose to the number two in the LA Phil administration, so it would be probably more accurate to describe her as a protégée of Ernest Fleischmann.
Congratulations tot Gail. I’ll never forget many years ago when I was starting out and she took my phone call. That was a sign and gesture of caring, not only for the organization, but for a musician on the outside looking in at the beginning of a career. It is gratifying to see someone who has invested her life in orchestra management to reach this pinnacle. Good luck to Gail and the Boston Symphony Orchestra!
People in her high position should delete their social media so they don’t accidentally post anything to anger the woke majority.