Sticking it in the (buck)eye!……

I want to piggy back onto what Bill wrote.  I completely agree with him and want to add that even when a conductor moves to their orchestra’s community, that alone wont guarantee an orchestra’s success!   I moved to Springfield but I wasn’t required to, I made a personal choice.  The board of an orchestra can negotiate the terms of employment and my guess is that Columbus didn’t require Junichi to be a resident….so it’s his fault that he didn’t move there, and that’s why they are in their current situation?  Please!

A contract is a contract is it not?  Did Junichi’s contract require him to agree to become a resident in Columbus?  I very much doubt it or it would have been brought up as a breach of contract instead of hindsight is 20/20. It’s just typical finger pointing and it seems Tony Beadle is not a resident either! If residency was such an issue then why did the board not require it in the first place?  Is it Junichi’s fault that they didn’t require it?  I think not!!!!  It’s time for some mirrors to be installed in their boardroom.

It’s also hard to play a game of chicken if you’ve already been run over!  Junichi in this May 10 NY Times article said:

“It’s catastrophic” he said.  “Stupid people.  I don’t care if they fire me. They have no idea.”

So these are the questions I ask:

1. A full 2 months after daring them to, why haven’t they fired him?
2. Why instead are they now asking the musicians to do it?
3. If the board is prepared to accept a vote of no confidence from the musicians against their Music Director, would they accept the same such vote from the musicians against them or their Executive Director?

Somehow I don’t think so!  The hiring and firing of any Music Director or executive is done by a board, as is the canceling of the summer season and the orchestra contract as they have already done, so to me their request for the musicians to throw Junichi under the bus is bizarre and doesn’t make sense.

The musicians have been hurt enough, and even with their livelihoods now taken away, they demonstrate dignity will and strength by continuing to perform and by being loyal to Junichi.  Because he has stood up for them and has stood with them, it’s incomprehensible for me to understand how the board could think after all the this time by threatening to pull the rug from underneath the orchestra and then after actually doing it, that the musicians would turn on him to get their jobs back!  Would then Tony Beadle be appointed Music Director….wait I forgot, he would have to be a resident!

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