In Thursday’s (9/24) Houston Chronicle, Tara Dooley writes, “Conductor Hans Graf is crafting an exit strategy that means he will leave his position as music director of the Houston Symphony in four years. Symphony administrators announced Wednesday that Graf and the board of trustees had agreed to extend the Austrian conductor’s contract through the 2012-2013 season. After that, Graf will become the symphony’s first conductor laureate. … Graf started his tenure as the 15th music director of the Houston Symphony at the start of the 2001-2002 season. … [Board President Bobby] Tudor said he expects the search for a new conductor to begin at the end of the year. The priority will be to find a replacement for the symphony’s executive director and CEO Matthew VanBesien, who leaves Houston at the end of the year for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Australia, she said.”
Posted September 25, 2009
