American conductors including (from left) Robert Spano, JoAnn Falletta, and Jonathon Heyward are among those cited in a New York Times article.
In Wednesday’s (3/6) New York Times, Javier C. Hernández writes, “As recently as 2008, there were American music directors leading orchestras in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. Today, the only one of those ensembles still led by an American is the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Four of the 25 largest ensembles in the United States have an American at the podium, and at the nation’s biggest, most prestigious orchestras, American music directors are entirely absent…. Jonathon Heyward, who grew up in South Carolina and began serving as the Baltimore Symphony’s music director last fall, [said], ‘We have to continuously think about ways to better relate to an American community.’… Just as maestros from overseas have assumed top conducting posts in the United States, American artists have gone to Europe, Asia and elsewhere to lead renowned ensembles…. Leonard Slatkin, who [served as music director of] the National Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, and the Detroit Symphony orchestras, among other ensembles, said, ‘There are wonderful musicians all over the world; that’s not the issue. It’s simply a matter of saying, if they can promote talent in other countries, why can’t we do it too?’… JoAnn Falletta, who has led the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra since 1999, said that orchestras should seize the opportunity to appoint more American conductors…. Simon Woods, the president and chief executive of the League of American Orchestras, said assistant conductors were too often not given the chance to grow as artists. The system for training young conductors in the United States, he said, is ‘not well suited to the development of distinctiveness. We need to take a hard look at what we’re asking of assistant conductors.’ ”
