The maestro’s son is also rising

From my latest monthly essay in The Critic magazine. a survey of the many sons of conductors who dream of inheriting the berth:

… There is half a football team of son-ofs who are presently skinning up the slippery pole. To name a few of the likelier lads: Taavi Oramo, son of BBC conductor Sakari; Ken-David Masur, chip off the late Kurt; Min Chung, born of Myung-whun; Masato Suzuki, heir to the Bach Collegium Japan. Maxime Tortelier is the son of Yan Pascal. All have agency contracts and good jobs in prospect.

Some go in disguise. François López-Ferrer conducted in Cincinnati, where his father Jesús López-Cobos was formerly in charge. The son of a knighted British baton conducts around the world under an assumed name.

Two Swiss orphans scaled Mont Blanc: Philippe (Armin) Jordan is music director of the Vienna State Opera and Lorenzo (Marcello) Viotti of Netherlands Opera. Both lost their fathers at a formative age…

What we are seeing here is not a conspiracy of podium nepotism but a diverse and largely hidden transmission of a musical function by means of informal tuition, ethical example and commercial manipulation. Do I still have your full attention?…

Read on here.

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