Where's Runnicles Going?

 

Donald Runnicles

Photo: Simon Pauly / Courtesy of San Francisco Opera

News you can use: Donald Runnicles will be stepping down a year early from his position as music director of Deutsche Oper Berlin, at the end of the 2025-26 seasons. He has held that position since 2009, when he left San Francisco Opera.

The reason cited is "family reasons," with no further details that I can find. That's an interesting reason: he has a daughter born in the 1980s when he was on the staff at Mannheim Opera; he has two daughters born in the 1990s when he was married to violist Elizabeth Prior. These children are all young adults who are very likely out of college by now. His wife Adelle Eslinger has two children from a previous marriage and I believe that they're also likely to be in their 20s.

So, what might be the professional reasons for Runnicles to relocate to the U.S.? Well, let's consider the jobs he has held in the last thirty years.

• San Francisco Opera, Music Director
• Grand Teton Music Festival, Music Director
• Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor
• BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Music Director
• Deutsch Oper Berlin, Music Director

So, there are family reasons and perhaps there's a new job awaiting him. Grand Teton is a good position, but that job and guest conducting in the US won't come close to filling the calendar of a conductor who has run two major opera houses and an orchestra. Let's think about the jobs that are out there right now or might be out there in a few years.

• Seattle Symphony still doesn't have a music director and their executive director sounds...uh...like someone most candidates won't want to work with.
• Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Muti's departure has been public knowledge for years, but they haven't announced an appointment yet. I've heard rumors of Klaus Mäkelä, because sure, every young conductor should have three orchestral appointments.
• Los Angeles Philharmonic. Is it possible that Runnicles misses that California sunshine? It seems unlikely that a deal could have been made with Runnicles so soon after the announcement of Gustavo Dudamel's departure for NY, and the LA Phil appears to be having some administrative chaos just now. Who knows what might happen there.
• San Francisco Symphony. Esa-Pekka Salonen's contract has two more years to run, through the end of 2024-25. I sincerely hope that he signs on for another five, but who knows? Between the pandemic and the orchestra rebuilding that he's had to do, this is not exactly what he would have expected in 2018.