Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra

Thanks to an alert that I never canceled after the Minnesota Orchestra lockout ended and the orchestra carried on, I received a link the other day to an article by Terry Blain in the Minnesota Star Tribute. It's called "Should the Minnesota Orchestra be looking for Osmo Vänskä's successor?"

It's quite good, and more or less says they should, both because his contract runs only through August, 2019, and because orchestras always need to have an eye on who might be next if something unexpected happens to your current music director. When you don't, and when you're timid, you get situations such as the BSO's two years of guest conductors before Andris Nelsons came on board, and the Met's years with James Levine limited by his health problems.

The article also takes note of Vänskä's well-known strengths and areas he has neglected, very sensibly. But it omits one factor that could keep Vänskä in Minnesota for a good long time: the nasty two-body problem that would have to be solved if he were to decamp. He is married to Erin Keefe, the orchestra's concertmaster. If he leaves, either they default to a commuter marriage, or they need to find an orchestra that needs a music director and a concertmaster. I don't think such double openings come up very often. And I'm surprised that such a well-researched article doesn't at least mention this.