Robert Grossman “has one of the most important yet least visible jobs at the Philadelphia Orchestra. He’s the orchestra’s librarian,” writes Geraldine Freedman in Sunday’s (8/13) Daily Gazette (Schenectady, N.Y.) “His duties, among others, include researching and obtaining the scores and instrumental parts to all the pieces that music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and guest conductors will perform during the season [and] marking all bowings, phrases and dynamics in the string parts that the music director wants…. Grossman also travels with the orchestra and he oversees a budget that includes $200,000 to cover payment for licensing fees … and $100,000 for purchasing new pieces.” Grossman said Nézet-Séguin is “ ‘very hands-on.… We’re not taking 40-year-old parts and putting in new bowings,’ Grossman said. ‘Rather, there are three new ways this is done: Yannick marks his score and we transfer everything to the parts; or he marks only the principals’ parts … or … he lets the principals work together to produce a bow master.’ … Grossman has … one full-time assistant, one part-time assistant, and occasional interns [in] the orchestra’s two-year librarian program, who graduate to work as librarians with other orchestras.”
Posted August 15, 2017
