Star trumpet: Chicago was troubled, Philadelphia more so

Principal trumpet Esteban Batallán has been telling Dennis Polkow why he left the Chicago Symphony for Philadelphia last year… and came back six months later.

Batallán: ‘Somehow, I wanted to make sure I had a good understanding of what the situation was here when Muti left. There was an uncertain time with the horn-section situation and with the trumpet section and with the trombone section as well. So, without getting really into detail, I think I needed to get some time away for myself….

‘When Philadelphia came up with the idea of my going there, I wanted to go and try and see how other places do things. The reality is that if I really felt that Philadelphia was a dream, I probably would stay there. But it was not a dream. My dream was still here. That’s why I decided to come back.

‘There were some situations in Philadelphia over the seven months that I was officially there that kind of were dragging me down a little bit. Some unfortunate situations between colleagues and some behaviors and things that I was fighting against here. So, my energy or my hope was kind of coming down in terms of Philadelphia.

‘Honestly, what I expressed to the CEO and [music director] Yannick [Nézet-Séguin] was that I was not ready to say no to the CSO with all these problems. Besides, I saw that things were working properly here by then. They understood from the beginning that [Chicago] was always my dream. They knew when I left to come to Philadelphia that it was potentially a temporary situation. I never lied to them. I said, ‘Look, this is the situation. It’s not new. Everybody knows this. I cannot hide my feelings. That’s been publicly said many, many times. So, let’s see how things go.’

Read the full interview here.

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