In Monday’s (10/27) Chicago Tribune, Mark Caro writes, “Christina Smith was home in Atlanta strategizing with her fellow locked-out musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra when she got the call: Could she join the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on its European tour as guest principal flute.… Smith, who would be in the midst of her 24th season with Atlanta were the orchestra actually playing, didn’t hesitate.… Smith is taking the seat of Mathieu Dufour, who had been the orchestra’s celebrated principal flutist before accepting the corresponding position with the Berlin Philharmonic, beginning in 2015.” Dufour wound up not joining the tour. “Smith, a Sonoma, Calif., native, is a seasoned pro, having won the Atlanta principal flute job at age 20 in 1991 just two years into what originally was intended to be four years of training at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Nonetheless, parachuting into a powerhouse touring orchestra such as the CSO—with its world-renowned, exacting music director, Riccardo Muti—might be assumed to be a tad intimidating, though Smith noted that her experience as a guest principal with other North American orchestras (including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh, Vancouver and Baltimore symphony orchestras) helped.”
Posted October 27, 2014
