Is Salonen Story A Wake-up Call To US Orchestras?

The LA Philharmonic music director has taken a post with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. “The cost of touring a U.S. orchestra, combined with union restrictions and post-9/11 fears, keep these ensembles mostly at home, to the mounting frustration of European maestros. Five top American orchestras — Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Detroit — lack a music director. While it might be premature to say conductors are deserting the U.S. in droves, one has only to look at the burgeoning London landscape to compare crisis with progressive renewal.”