Passing the Baton in L.A.
The Los Angeles Times reports that conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen will leave the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2009 after fifteen seasons. His successor will be a twenty-six-year-old (!) Venezuelan, Gustavo Dudamel. The New York Times adds that "[o]ther major American orchestras are in the throes of a conductor search, including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the choice of Mr. Dudamel may put pressure on them to come up with daring and youthful choices of their own."




