Dudamel moving from LA Philharmonic to New York Philharmonic

[Brian]

Just got a NYTimes news alert on my phone for this - the first time I've gotten a classical-themed news alert from them.

Dudamel will take over the NYPO music director role in the 2026-27 season, leaving Los Angeles to do so. Jaap van Zweden steps down in summer 2024 so they will go two seasons without a full-time music director.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/arts/music/new-york-philharmonic-gustavo-dudamel.html

Excerpts from the article:
"What I see is an amazing orchestra in New York and a lot of potential for developing something important," he said in an interview. "It's like opening a new door and building a new house. It's a beautiful time."

He was lured east by Deborah Borda, the New York Philharmonic's powerful president and chief executive, in an instance of classical music history repeating itself. She signed the 26-year-old Dudamel to the Los Angeles Philharmonic back when she led that ensemble, and helped make him a superstar in its relatively new Walt Disney Concert Hall....She steps down from her New York role at the end of June.

When Dudamel appeared at the Philharmonic last spring, for a two-program Schumann symphony cycle, some players, hoping to win him over, showed up to rehearsals bearing gifts and handwritten notes. Inside his dressing room, a group of musicians gave him a bottle of the Brooklyn-made Widow Jane bourbon, telling him the Philharmonic would welcome him if he could find a way to spend more time in New York.

"Everything comes alive with him," said Christopher Martin, the orchestra's principal trumpet. "Everything is as natural as breathing."

Borda said that it was Dudamel's long and fruitful relationship with the Philharmonic — he has led 26 concerts with the orchestra since his debut in 2007 — that had made him the choice of the musicians, board members and managers. She recounted meeting him secretly in various European cities over the past year, often flying in and out within 24 hours to avoid suspicion, as she tried to secure a deal. (Seeing him in Los Angeles, she said, "just didn't feel kosher.")

In October, when Dudamel was in New York to perform at Carnegie Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, she took him on a tour of the renovated hall during a rehearsal, taking a circuitous route to sneak him onto the third tier so that even the orchestra's musicians would not know. The attempt at secrecy was foiled when they bumped into Lin-Manuel Miranda.

[Todd]

Just got a NYTimes news alert on my phone for this - the first time I've gotten a classical-themed news alert from them.

Same.  Hopefully, he can do more than Zweden.  Now, who takes over in LA?

[ritter]

The flights between Paris and New York are considerably shorter than between Paris and Los Angeles. 

[Karl Henning]

(Seeing him in Los Angeles, she said, "just didn't feel kosher.")

Very New York, and why not?

[(poco) Sforzando]

Oddly enough, I have never heard Zweden live. (Pandemic and all, I have yet to visit the new Geffen Hall - which means I missed Klaus Makela a month ago, and I have yet to even use the new Grand Central terminal for the Long Island Railroad.) But Dudamel's appointment sounds genuinely exciting. He belongs in my home town.

[relm1]

Well played, Debra.  Well played.

[brewski]

Very exciting news! And especially when coupled with the also-happy news of Yannick Nézet-Séguin extending his contract with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

-Bruce

[lordlance]

How come Zweden recorded so few discs with NYP? Not a successful relationship I take it?

[vers la flamme]

Ah, so the plot to Mozart in the Jungle is coming true. Good choice, I think.

[Brian]

How come Zweden recorded so few discs with NYP? Not a successful relationship I take it?

I think that they always saw him as more of a caretaker to get through the renovation of their concert hall without any fuss or chaos, rather than a long-term star. It is possible that they always wanted Dudamel and signed van Zweden as a fill-in until Dudamel was available.