Morlot to Leave Seattle Symphony

A surprise the other week: Ludovic Morlot, the very talented young Frenchman who has been music director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra since 2011, will leave in 2019 when his contract is up. My impression from 900 miles to the south is that he has been extremely successful with the orchestra. He became MD after Gerard Schwarz stepped down amid controversy; he instituted a new late-night series and modernized the orchestra's programming.

I haven't seen anything about his plans, but presumably there's something in the works that we will hear about eventually.

Updated list of open spots:

• Seattle Symphony Orchestra (when Ludovic Morlot leaves in 2019)
• St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (when David Robertson leaves)
• Dallas Symphony Orchestra (when Jaap van Zweden takes up his new post at the NYPO in 2018)
• Milwaukee Symphony
• Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
• San Diego Symphony
• Orchestra Nationale de France
• Vienna Staatsoper / VPO (Dominique Meyer not planning to appoint a WSO MD; his contract expires in 2020.)