Gustavo Dudamel returns to the the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s podium for his last concerts in Walt Disney Concert Hall as the orchestra’s Music & Artistic Director. That also means that the parade of guest concertmasters vying for one of the two open chairs on first stand continues in earnest (for a review of the candidates thus far, click HERE).
The next candidate debuting tonight is a doozy . . .
Vineta Sareika will be guest concertmaster with the LA Phil for the performances of Wagner’s Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), with each of the three acts played in separate concerts then repeated over six nights between May 19 and May 24. The Latvian violinist was concertmaster of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic (2011 – 2013) and first violin of the Artemis Quartet (2012 – 2021) before joining the Berlin Philharmonic violin section in May 2022. In February of the following year, she was named First Concertmaster, one of three to hold the position at the time and the first ever woman to be given the title.
Here is footage of her in the first chair of that orchestra playing Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Journey) with Kirill Petrenko:
. . . and another of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 with Zubin Mehta:
On September 9, 2024, she announced on Facebook:
“After three enriching and exciting years with the Berlin Philharmonic I have made the decision to leave the orchestra.
It has been an honor for me to serve as its first ever woman concertmaster and I am truly grateful for this unique life experience, fantastic concerts and inspiring encounters.
One of the many valuable learnings during the past years however is that being part of this particular orchestra is not the path I’d like to continue on in the future. I wish the orchestra the best of luck finding a fantastic new colleague for this position, I am at the same time looking forward to the next chapter of my personal musical journey.
My last concerts as concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic will take place in February 2025.”
The buzz about her playing leading up to tonight’s first concerts with the LA Phil has been palpable. Assuming she’s officially making herself a candidate for their Concertmaster, I’ll be shocked if she’s not qualified by the orchestra and becomes a/the leading candidate to take up the post permanently.
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Photo credit: Nicolaj Lund, courtesy of the artist’s website
All is Yar 
Ouch: “…being part of this particular orchestra…” Well, that’s a statement(!) and I now have a LOT of questions…(is Berlin Phil less a 21st century band than we all thought??, etc…) and does anyone have any answers? I’l be out for Dudamel’s last week of shows at Disney, I hope she’s still around!
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Yeah, regarding her departure: lots of speculation yet nothing definitive as to the reason, and undoubtedly eye-opening regardless.
She’s only playing for the 6 Wagner performances. Others will be guest concertmaster for the remaining concerts.
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Not to be obvious, but I’m open to a Latvian MD and concertmaster tag-team at the LAPhil…! And, as you do, please post future guests if/as you know…
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Further signs of the next MD (if there is one) being a gutted position with a Conductor Laureate, Creative Chair, and Conductor-in-Residence on the books on top of whatever they will call Dudamel. Whatever his accomplishments, Dudamel should not get to name the Concertmaster on his way out the door.
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Regardless of whether the MD position is being gutted, since no music director will be appointed in the immediate future, I (and evidently also the orchestra) have no problem with Dudamel appointing the next Concertmaster. I believe a prolonged leadership vacuum in the first violins, notwithstanding the excellent Bing Wang, is only slightly less damaging than the absence of a music director. Missing both at the same time would be quite bad.
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Agree with Janne. I acknowledge it’s awkward for an outgoing MD to pick a concertmaster, yet as I’ve mentioned before, the LA Phil currently has vacancies in 3 or the top 4 and 5 of the top 6 first violin chairs. That’s not good, short-term or long.
Additionally, Concertmaster is the one chair in the orchestra that serves at the pleasure of the MD. If the eventual new Music Director objects to whomever the new concertmaster ends up being, they can make a unilateral change if they wish (see the SFS, MTT, Raymond Kobler, and Sasha Baranchik as a noteworthy example).
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@Janne: That vacuum is entirely the LAP’s own making. Giving so much power to Salonen, Adams, and now Dudamel will give any high caliber MD candidate pause.
@CK Dexter Haven: You are suggesting more turmoil if the incoming MD names his or her own concertmaster. How is that good? Salonen placed a principal cello many years ago and that didn’t end well.
Perhaps the adventurous LAP will “reinvent” the MD as a committee.
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To be clear, I’m not advocating that a new MD fire any concertmaster, just saying he/she had the right. I agree it’d be disruptive. I just think keeping the chair open is worse.
None of it is ideal, but assuming the orchestra finds a violinist they like — and they’ve already qualified multiple candidates — then I think they’re better off letting Mr. Dudamel make the pick than to leave it vacant. And especially if your prediction/expectation that the LA Phil forgoes . . . er, forwent?? . . . decides against having a MD in the future, they’ll have to pick one anyway.
Mr. Dudamel has a pretty solid track record of making hires for the orchestra. I doubt his pick for concertmaster would be a fail.
*side note: the principal cello pick you mentioned, was, IMHO, a phenomenal pick (and graciously, neither of us are naming names, which I think is good). My understanding is that it was internal politics, not musicianship, that led to it not working out.
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(Tried posting earlier but didn’t go through)
The Berliners have multiple CMs, the current candidate having been one of them. Have each of the troika pick one for his weeks. There always were lots of subs at the concerts I attended. As they say, musicians at this level are expected to play well with anyone.
Dudamel’s picks: I recall a few not going well. Oboists, flutists, etc.
Since we are not mentioning names, I was unimpressed by the cellist whether at the Chandler or in chamber music around town. I will also refrain from linking to your post about the issue.
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All fair comments. I wouldn’t mind the idea of multiple CMs (the LA Phil had both Principal Concertmaster and Concertmaster for decades, after all), but modern US orchestra’s CBAs don’t accommodate, so likelihood from a purely practical standpoint is miniscule.
Regarding picks that went well or not — I meant that they didn’t “go well” from a musical standpoint, not that they didn’t stay, though I certainly think that’s a valid way to consider a hire to be a failure.
Among all the musicians that Mr. Dudamel have hired and subsequently left for one reason or another, very few were because they didn’t get tenure. Of the ones that were picked by him and stayed, I’d only consider one to be . . . um, how to put this best . . . settling for the best available rather than picking someone of the caliber of musician most of the other hires have been.
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All these people are elite musicians by any reasonable definition. Principal roles go well beyond the musicmaking. If the MD gets to be on the press release flacking a new hire, he’s got to be on the hot seat when the guy doesn’t blend and/or sods off after a year or even less.
It has been some years since I last went to an LAP concert so I don’t know who you are not naming. Consider this a car race and I’m watching on tv in case there’s a crash.
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The problem is that there is currently no truly suitable MD candidate. I personally think Jordan, Gimeno, or Bancroft could “do the job”, so to speak, but none of them are tremendously exciting prospects and may not even be available. Conductors like Hrůša and Popelka are in my opinion too limited in repertoire for the MD position in LA. This is the same problem I had with Elim Chan. Conductors like Nelsons and Rouvali are in my opinion not quite competent enough, although their musicians like them and I do not know what their concerts in LA would sound like. I did not like the new title and powers given to Salonen, since I’m not a great fan of him, but evidently the orchestra thinks otherwise. Under the circumstances, assigning aspects of the MD responsibilities to former music directors is not such a bad idea. I’m hopeful that Handler can prove herself and be “upgraded” into a more significant role, but right now I think the current arrangement works.
That the incoming MD may not jibe with Dudamel’s pick is a small possibility, and the possibility that they would actually use the option to remove the concertmaster is even smaller. The concertmasters currently on trials have mostly been very good, so I don’t worry too much that the next MD may not like the pick.
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I think future seasons are already being split among the Dudamel, Salonen, and Adams since the programs have to set and guests engaged years ahead. The LAP could easily appoint a Principal Conductor whose job is to lead the few weeks not spoken for by the Committee, the Artistic Planning department, or assigned to Handler. Good pay, low administrative burden, and the s/he wouldn’t have to live in expensive LA. Opens the pool to senior conductors who don’t want the headaches of being the organizational face of an American orchestra and/or up-and-comers who need a springboard to a traditional MD role elsewhere.
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I only hope that the new CM is at least as reliable as Martin Chalifour. Every time I have gone to see the LA Phil, whether in an orchestral or chamber music setting, Mr. Chalifour (whenever he is present) has been consistently excellent, and so has Nathan Cole been when the former was absent. I do wish that this search concludes by the end of Dudamel’s tenure and is not extended past that point.
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I’m highly confident your hope will be fulfilled.
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Very excited to see who is playing the Ein Heldenleben solos this week
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Guest concertmaster for this week’s concerts, including Ein Heldenleben, will be Marc Rovetti (Assistant Concertmaster, Philadelphia Orchestra). He is a candidate for the vacant First Associate Concertmaster chair.
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I assume there’s no guest concertmaster for the final Dudamel farewell concerts the following week? It would be a pretty bizarre environment for new candidates
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Your assumption is incorrect. There is indeed a guest concertmaster next week and his name is Nathan Cole.
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very excited to see who will be playing the ein heldenleben solos this week
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