Thursday, August 29, 2013

SFS Personnel

From the press department at the SF Symphony comes word of new developments on the orchestra roster:

Jacob Nissly, formerly of the Cleveland Orchestra, succeeds the retired Jack Van Geem as principal percussion.

Alex Orfaly steps in as acting principal timpani for one year while David Herbert cases the situation in Chicago. In addition to being a percussionist, Orfaly is apparently a composer of some ability. Interesting!

Jonathan Fischer, who's been on leave while serving as principal oboe with the Houston Symphony, will be acting principal oboe in the wake of Bill Bennett's death, although he'll be splitting his time between here and Texas.

Dan Nobuhiko Smiley, who's been principal second violin for several years, has evidently elected to move down to fourth chair, leaving Dan Carlson, Paul Brancato and John Chisholm to each move up a notch. I can't help remarking that Smiley's predecessor, Daniel Kobialka (in the SFS, all second violinists are named Dan), also self-demoted.

5 Comments:

At 8/29/2013 12:49 PM, Blogger Lisa Hirsch said...

This one hasn't landed in my inbox yet, which worries me a little.

I knew something was up in the second fiddles, because there's an audition listed for principal. And this clears up the Jonathan Fischer situation for now. Does the press release say anything about who will be acting second oboe? Chris Gaudi, perhaps?

 
At 8/29/2013 1:01 PM, Blogger Joshua Kosman said...

Yes, Chris Gaudi continues in situ.

 
At 9/05/2013 12:46 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cases the situation in Chicago? You mean the CSO didn't actually hire him? That sure wasn't the way it was announced.

 
At 9/05/2013 6:25 AM, Blogger Lisa Hirsch said...

They hired him, but 1) he might not get tenure (a remote possibility, it is true) 2) he's on a one-year leave of absence from SFS and could return if he discovers the grass isn't greener on the other side.

 
At 9/28/2013 10:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

David Herbert was playing with the SFS Friday night (Sep 27). So what's up? Is he on leave to Chicago or not?

 

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