<p>This is a big deal for Aspen, and quite sad. Zinman was a major macher there and a fun conductor to watch.<br>
The Aspen Times writes:
As of three days ago, David Zinman was in negotiations to extend his contract as music director of the Aspen Music Festival and School through the 2011 season. But as of two days ago, Zinman won’t even be appearing at this summer’s festival.</p>
<p>In a move that came as a surprise to Music Festival president and CEO Alan Fletcher, the 73-year-old Zinman requested to be released from his contract, which ran through the 2010 summer. The Music Festival — by far the area’s biggest arts nonprofit, with an eight-week season and a school that has enrolled some 750 students in recent years — consented, abruptly ending a 12-year tenure that seems to be considered generally successful.
“David probably had frustration and disappointment in all that went on,” Haas, who has not been in touch with Zinman regarding his resignation, said. “He was not a supporter of the events that, right or wrong, the festival decided had to be made. He certainly was not a supporter of the initiatives, or the way they were implemented. Maybe he got to the endgame that it wouldn’t be great to come back and put a happy face on it. Maybe he didn’t have it in him to give that important and positive message to the students for another summer, with these troubles the festival is facing.”</p>
<p>Noting that Zinman lives most of the time in Europe, Haas added that travel and logistics might have figured into Zinman’s decision.</p>
<p>Fletcher acknowledged that he has heard talk that he and Zinman did not get along well. But he said that, if the relationship was troubling enough to cause Zinman to part ways with the festival, Zinman gave little indication of that last summer.</p>
<p>“All summer we had multiple friendly lunches. I’d ask him if there were problems and he’s say, ‘No, no, I don’t have any problems,'” Fletcher said. “And yet, there must have been problems. But I felt they were on his side, and not on mine. I have had no troubles working with David.”</p>
<p>Among the concerns raised by Zinman’s departure, the most pressing is finding replacement conductors for the concerts he was scheduled to lead this summer. Zinman was set to conduct five performances, including the first symphony concert of the season, on July 2, featuring superstar violinist Gil Shaham, and the closing event of the season, typically a massive, celebratory affair. Fletcher, however, noted there was “an extremely deep field of conductors who want to conduct here.”</p>
<p>As for finding a successor to fill Zinman’s role as director, Fletcher said that he is already organizing an advisory committee to determine the process to hire a new artistic director. Fletcher added that the organization is in healthy shape — ticket sales are ahead of last year; student registration is strong; the endowment is up — and thus there is no sense of panic to fill the leadership position. </p>
<p>“Nothing sudden will happen,” Fletcher said.</p>
<p>There is broad agreement that the next music director will have sizable shoes to fill. Zinman — along with the late Robert Harth, a past president of the festival — created the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, an ambitious program that provided enormous resources, including an orchestra of its own, to train aspiring conductors. Fletcher and Haas both noted that Zinman — who is also director of the Tonhalle Orchester-Zurich, in Switzerland, and has had an acclaimed recording career — raised the artistic level at the festival.</p>
<p>“David brought the festival from one in which our artistic and education mission was at times ambiguous, to being well-directed and centered on what is important in classical music,” Haas said. </p>
<p>“Anyone who’s been attending the festival in the last 12 years will have memories of truly wonderful concerts that he conducted,” Fletcher said, noting that among his favorites were Schoenberg’s “Gurre-Lieder,” which closed the 2008 festival; a semi-staged version of the Puccini opera “Madame Butterfly”; and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7. Fletcher added, in a press release, that he was hopeful that Zinman would return to Aspen as a guest conductor.</p>
<p>Fletcher and Haas also agreed that Zinman was liked and admired by the Music Festival community.</p>
<p>“I think it’s a sad day for the festival,” Haas said. “There’s a feeling of loss. I think a lot of people are going to miss him.”</p>
<p>“We were in discussions with his representatives about 2011, and it was very positive and productive,” Fletcher said. “Then they said, ‘We’re going to stop these discussions, and David’s going to request to be released from his contract.”</p>
<p>Fletcher said he would not speculate about Zinman’s desire to sever his relationship with the organization. But Jonathan Haas, an Aspen Music School faculty member who has led the Aspen Percussion Ensemble for 24 years, believes that Zinman’s decision was connected to incidents from last summer, when the organization decided to cut a week from the summer season and, more significantly, reduced the size of the faculty over Zinman’s protests. After negotiations, the Music Festival restored some faculty positions that were scheduled to be cut. But tension inside the organization ran high enough that, in October, the Music Festival announced that Fletcher would be leaving his position. Several weeks later, a vote of the full board of directors reinstated Fletcher.</p>