The choosing of a music director for the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra, after 14 months during which three candidates were tried out, is now mired in uncertainty.
Orchestra musicians say that the group’s manager, Roberto Torres, had two recent meetings with them, and explained that the process, which was supposed to be complete by now, is still up in the air.
Torres’s explanation ran like a classic “good news and bad news” joke. The competition between American Leslie Dunner, Italian Leonardo Gasparini and Mexican Rodrigo Macias is over, he explained. But the winner, Macias, declined.
Since nobody had apparently foreseen that the winner might say no, orchestra leaders are now “searching for an alternative strategy,” according to orchestra spokeswoman Julia Gonzalez.
“The competition is closed,” Torres told Spanish-language daily Milenio, then adding rather confusingly, “The process is not closed.”
Torres informed the musicians that Dunner had not been contacted, and Gonzalez declined to say if he or Gasparini had been rejected or accepted. But now other names are being proffered as candidates. Torres said Macias declined because he wanted too much money.
Meanwhile, Guadalajara’s media is filled with speculation, criticism and contradictions voiced by various high-level actors. Milenio complained that the orchestra is like a ship on the high seas without a captain. The Consejo Estatal para la Cultura y las Artes (State Board of Culture and the Arts) gave notice – via spokesman Arturo Camacho – that it will issue a reprimand of Torres. Changing the rules and not selecting from among the original three candidates, as originally agreed, amounts to dishonesty, Camacho fumed, adding that Torres lacks the knowledge to manage the orchestra.
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