In Tuesday’s (3/6) Ottawa Citizen (Canada), Mark Brownlee, “Pinchas Zukerman announced Monday he will step down from his post as music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in 2015, leaving ‘big shoes to fill.’ Zukerman, 63, took over the job in 1999 and will have been at the NAC for 16 years—the longest anyone has served in the post—by the time he leaves at the end of his contract in just over three years. The NAC will now be tasked with finding someone to replace him. ‘Those are big shoes to fill,’ said Christopher Deacon, the NACO’s managing director. ‘What we will be doing is committing to undertaking a process that will bring the best possible conductor for the next phase of the organization’s artistic development, but it’s no doubt it’s going to be tough.’ Zukerman helped breathe new life into the NACO when he took over, said Deacon. … One of Zukerman’s contributions to the NAC was educating young musicians, something not all directors would do, Deacon said. The year he took over his post, Zukerman started the Summer Music Institute, which now brings about 100 young people to Ottawa every year to work with him and other NAC staff.”
Photo by Wayne Hiebert/The Ottawa Citizen
Posted March 6, 2012
