In Thursday’s (10/25) Ha’aretz (Israel), Noam Ben-Zeev reports, “After two years of serving as the Israel Chamber Orchestra’s musical director and principal conductor, Roberto Paternostro has been informed that his contract won’t be renewed when it lapses at the end of this season. Paternostro’s dismissal, and his replacement by conductor Yoav Talmi, was slated to be announced last night at the orchestra’s first concert of the season. The orchestra’s new board of directors, headed by attorney Zvi Firon, has declared that its goal is to get the orchestra back on its feet, financially speaking. … As a resident of Vienna, Firon said, Paternostro is unable to work closely with the orchestra on its extra-musical problems the way someone who lives here and is involved in Israeli society can. A search committee headed by board member Prof. Dov Pekelman and comprised of members of the orchestra sifted through a list of dozens of conductors … Talmi got the nod in large part because of his long history with the orchestra: He began conducting it back in the 1970s, when orchestra founder Gary Bertini was still its principal conductor, and has since led it in hundreds of concerts.”
Posted October 25, 2012
