Tarnopolsky to Philadelphia Orchestra?

Email from a friend this morning alerted me to a report by N***** L******* saying that Matias Tarnopolsky would be the next president of the Philadelphia Orchestra. (I'm not going to link to NL or even mention the name of his blog. Do a web search if you want to see the report.) Now there's an article by Peter Dobrin in The Inquirer, and that I'm happy to link to. Dobrin says there's no contract yet and the Philly board hasn't voted on it, but there is a verbal agreement. It could theoretically still fall through, but who knows who the leaker is? Somebody close to the orchestra.

Joshua Kosman has picked up Dobrin's report. I have email out to Cal Performances but have heard nothing yet.

UPDATE: It's true. He'll have his work cut out for him at Philly. His predecessor might be characterized as union-busting, given her administration at Philly and at Atlanta. She took the orchestra into and out of bankruptcy.

The orchestra has had a problem board that let the organization drift for way too long. Note the five-year tenure of Christoph Eschenbach, followed by four years of acting MD Charles Dutoit (they might be regretting this now) before Yannick Nezet-Seguin was tapped.

This year's season is also notably dull, despite having an energetic young MD, and it's an all-male season. Let's hope Matias Tarnopolsky can turn the ship around.

Other coverage:

• Michael Cooper, Times
• Peter Dobrin, updated
• Joshua Kosman, updated

Here's the Cal Performances press release about his departure, after the cut.

MATíAS TARNOPOLSKY,

CAL PERFORMANCES ARTISTIC AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,

to step down AFTER NINE SEASONS

Berkeley, March 26, 2018 — Cal Performances announces today that its executive and artistic director Matías Tarnopolsky will step down this summer, leaving the organization to assume his new appointment as President and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He will continue in his role at Cal Performances through the end of June 2018.

Matías Tarnopolsky has served as executive and artistic director of Cal Performances since August 2009. Situated on the vibrant campus of the University of California, Berkeley, Cal Performances presents the world’s leading orchestras, ensembles, and soloists; dance and theater companies; jazz artists and speakers; often in multifaceted residencies. It reaches more than 150,000 people annually through concerts and campus and community events, including talks, lecture demonstrations, and academic courses created to connect with performances on the season.

Under the leadership of Matías Tarnopolsky, the organization launched Berkeley RADICAL (Research and Development Initiative in Creativity Arts and Learning) in 2015 to cultivate the artistic literacy of future audiences and connect the most innovative artists in the world with the intellectual capital of UC Berkeley. Tarnopolsky brought Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela to Cal Performances to launch Berkeley RADICAL with a residency in September 2015. Orchestral residencies rich with engagement opportunities for the students and greater community at UC Berkeley have been a hallmark of his tenure on campus. Tarnopolsky notably brought the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to the UC Berkeley campus in March 2014; the Philharmonia Orchestra of London and its principal conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen for two residencies in fall 2012 and fall 2016; and Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for a memorable residency in October 2017.

Tarnopolsky has also been at the helm of the organization’s artistic commissions, including underwriting Robert Battle’s Awakening, the first piece he choreographed for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater after becoming its artistic director in 2011; the revival of John Adams, Lucinda Childs, and Frank O. Gehry’s Available Light in honor of Adams’s 70^th birthday in February 2017; Mark Morris’s Layla and Majnun which Cal Performances gave its world premiere in September 2016; establishing Cal Performances’ legacy partnership of Kronos Quartet’s Fifty for the Future commissioning project; and spearheading the commission of a new oratorio, Dreamer, inspired by undocumented immigrants, from composer Jimmy López and librettist Nilo Cruz to be performed in March 2019.

Also under his directorship Cal Performances presented an exclusive engagement of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass’s opera in four parts Einstein on the Beach in October 2012, and staged a collaboration with the San Francisco Opera of The Secret Garden in March 2013.

“As I embark on an exciting new chapter I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the board and staff of Cal Performances, and to my colleagues on the campus of UC Berkeley,” says Tarnopolsky. “The last nine years have been extraordinary, surrounded by an inspiring cultural and intellectual environment, appreciative and engaged audiences, and artists and ensembles who give their best when they perform under our auspices. Doing this kind of work, at the heart of UC Berkeley, our great public university, is a rare privilege and one which I have treasured.”

Susan Graham, co-chair of Cal Performances’ Board of Trustees shares, “Matías has been a fabulous director and has elevated an already outstanding performing arts organization to be the best at any university. Under his directorship Cal Performances has become increasingly notable not only for the performances we present, but also for the commissioning of new works, for our artist residencies, and for our outreach to the university and local communities. We're very sorry to see him go. We know he'll be an enormous asset to the Philadelphia Orchestra.” Graham co-chaired the search committee for Tarnopolsky’s hiring and personally recruited him to Cal Performances in 2009.

Cal Performances will announce its 2018-19 season on April 17, 2018.