“But even more shocking to me is there will be no American leading an American orchestra”–Marin Alsop, Washington Post, May 23, 2021
Back in May, in an article about her departure from the Baltimore Symphony as music director, Marin Alsop cast aside questions about the need for more women conductors–an issue she certainly takes seriously–to raise the alarm on the dearth of Americans helming of our own stateside bands.
She’s right to be concerned.
Earlier this month, the Houston Symphony announced that Slovakian Juraj Valčuha would be its next music director when Colombian Andrés Orozco-Estrada steps down next season. This leaves the top 13 orchestras in the US with a total of zero American music directors. Only one, the New York Philharmonic’s Jaap van Zweden, studied in the US.
The situation in so-called second-tier orchestras–second only in budget size; some of the most exciting orchestras fall in this category–in smaller markets is scarcely different. The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, for example, recently announced it was replacing Smugtown’s own Ward Stare with German Andreas Delfs. Large or small, orchestras in our country seem to have an aversion to hiring from within their own country.
From Bernstein on, the US has developed a string of great and distinctive conductors who have done remarkable things with orchestras large and small, leaders like Michael Tilson Thomas, JoAnn Falletta, Gerard Schwartz, Alan Gilbert, and, indeed, Alsop, to name only a few. It’s a shame that this tradition is not continuing today.
Mark Likes Music 