Breaking: Concertmaster is out in new LA Phil crisis
NewsPlayers learned earlier this week that the orchestra’s Candian concertmaster, Martin Chalifour, is leaving at the end of this season. A chamber music concert has been hastily organised in his honour on November 23.
Chalifour, 63, joined the LA Phil under Esa-Pekka Salonen and has occupied the first chair for thirty years.
Gustavo Dudamel said: ‘He sets the example for the orchestra each day with his skill, taste, knowledge, consistency, and deep love of the music. I am so grateful to have one more season with Martin by my side, and wish him all the happiness in the world as he enters this next chapter.’
His abrupt departure precipitates a concertmaster crisis.
Of the LA Phil’s four CM’s, Nathan Cole has departed for Boston, his wife Akiko Tarumoto is expected to join him there. Chalifour is out. That leaves just Bing Wang, who is John Williams’s personal favourite.
The LA Phil needs to promote or hire three concertmasters in no time flat. That will take speed, dexterity and diplomacy.
This won’t happen until the next conductor comes in
The concert you mentioned was not “hastily organised” but has been on the schedule for a while. You say it’s a crisis, but I bet some people are muttering “finally” under their breath. His predecessor, Sidney Weiss, a much better concertmaster IMO, left the orchestra due to conflict with Salonen. I hope this departure is more amiable. Anyway, it’s not a given that Cole and Tarumoto (and their children) will definitely move to Boston. Isn’t fellow Latvian Vineta Sareika free now? Who knows, maybe Nelsons is also having second thoughts. But LA Phil is not going to let an outgoing music director hire any new concertmasters “in no time flat”.