Baltimore musicians balk at Alsop

The expected appointment of one of the world’s top female conductors to lead the Baltimore Symphony is premature, a group of orchestra members said Monday, asking that the search for a music director continue.

Marin Alsop, an American who is principal conductor at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Britain, told Associated Press last week that she expected the Baltimore Symphony’s board to approve her appointment today.

Alsop, 48, said a contract was being negotiated and she saw no “huge stumbling blocks” to an announcement that would make her the first woman to head a top American orchestra.

But orchestra members on the search committee issued a strongly worded statement, saying a “vast majority” of musicians object to ending the search to replace Yuri Temirkanov, who’s stepping down at the end of the 2005-06 season.

“Ending the search process now, before we are sure the best candidate has been found, would be a disservice to the patrons of the BSO and all music lovers in Maryland,” the statement said.

The seven musicians on the 21-member search committee “were unanimous that the search process should continue and that any decision on a music director was premature,” said English horn player Jane Marvine, chairwoman of the committee that represents the orchestra in contract talks with management.

The musicians want the search extended until Thanksgiving, “so we can consider several additional conductors appearing with the orchestra this fall,” said Marvine. She said that “90% of the orchestra feels that the search should continue.”

Marvine wouldn’t comment specifically about Alsop. She also declined to name the “additional conductors.”

“This is about the process,” she said. “The musicians are trying to have an open process where their artistic views are given consideration.”

Laura Johnson, a Baltimore Symphony Orchestra spokeswoman, who previously said the majority of board members on the search committee were “very favorable to Ms. Alsop,” declined Monday to speak about specifics until after the larger board voted.

She said that while there had been “spirited conversations ... this has been an extremely inclusive and collaborative process.”

“We’ve debated responsibly, and we’re at a point where we’re at a difference of opinions,” Johnson said.

But Marvine said the search committee didn’t vote on whether to hire Alsop and therefore didn’t consider the musicians’ opposition to ending the search.

The musicians said in their statement that news of contract negotiations with Alsop “reinforces our view that a decision has been made without the full participation and agreement of the BSO musicians. If the board of directors makes a decision opposed by the vast majority of the orchestra, all confidence in the current leadership of the orchestra would be lost.”

Messages left for Alsop weren’t immediately returned.