BBC promotes one orchestra manager, hires another
NewsThe Director of the BBC Concert Orchestra Bill Chandler was this morning promoted to Director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus.
Elsewhere, Adam Szabo crosses town from the Manchester Collective to be director of the BBC Philharmonic.
There is now a vacancy for director at the BBC Concert Orchestra…. so it goes.
Chandler (pictured) has done a good job. A former violinist in the Houston Symphony, he joined the Royal Scottish National Orchestra as Associate Leader. In September 2021 he took charge of the BBC Concert Orchestra, building partnerships across the UK in Nottingham, Great Yarmouth, Alexandra Palace and elsewhere.
Congratulations Bill. A real master of communication.
So, Carolyn Hendry is seat warming as interim Director at the Concert Orchestra – a lot of this sort of stuff going around. I wouldn’t be surprised if that also goes to another lily white bloke “passionate about the role music and musicians play in society”. Who exactly makes these agile appointment decisions at the BBC? The diversity of thought is astonishing.
Excellent news and well done, Bill.
Let’s hear it for the boys
How’d the Manchester Collective make out?
Excellent appointment- Bill Chandler is a gifted manager and a very good person.
Is it? Is he?
Yes, he is both
Oh really?
From vacancies to feet under the table, it’s taken a year to fill these posts, in no small measure due to the calamitous attempt from within the BBC executive earlier in March to destroy the BBC’s unrivalled music broadcast legacy.
One would hope that these appointments make up for that in short order. Perhaps let’s unofficially suggest a three month probation period:
Vision, touring, identity and outreach, not to mention wise commercial and legacy decisions that must ensure these century old world class ensembles are secured in the cultural landscape they enrich.
This is a critical time in Britain’s cultural life, where artistic ecosystems nurtured over decades are threatened by arbitrary swipes of unqualified administrators’ pens.
Everyone is watching very carefully.
It is one small step on the slippery slope to merge the two orchestras. Why else appoint the director from one BBC orchestra to the other?
Chandler didn’t build relationships for the CO in Great Yarmouth or Alexandra palace. They were already in existence. Nottingham also talked about before his tenure.