“After seven years as music director of the Kennedy Center and the National Symphony Orchestra, Christoph Eschenbach will conclude his tenure in 2017, the orchestra announced Wednesday,” writes Anne Midgette in Wednesday’s (2/18) Washington Post. “Eschenbach will become Conductor Laureate of the orchestra in the 2017-18 season…. The news means that the National Symphony Orchestra joins the New York Philharmonic in the search for a new music director for the 2017-18 season, after the departure of a music director—there, Alan Gilbert; here, Eschenbach—who was still relatively new to the job. … In his five years thus far, Eschenbach has overseen the addition of 15 new orchestra members, as well as the ascension of two musicians who were already in the orchestra to first-chair positions. And he led two international tours, almost back to back: one to South America in 2012, and a critically acclaimed one to Europe in 2013, which seemed to promise a new and more prominent future.… Eschenbach has also taken part in five community outreach programs—three coaching sessions at the University of Maryland and two NSO in your Neighborhood events—since 2010.”
Posted February 18, 2015
Photo of Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra by Juana Arias / Washington Post
