The Nike "Musical Chairs" commercial

In today's news we read that Leif Segerstam will become the "Chief Conductor Emeritus" of Helsinki Filharmonia and John Storgårds from Tampere Filharmonia will take up the post of the chief conductor next year. By following the news coming from the Finnish orchestral field past couple of months, I think we are now witnessing a chain reaction started by the resignation of Mikko Franck from the Finnish National Opera.

Let's see the events in chronological order:

14.2. Chief conductor of the Finnish National Opera, Mikko Franck resigns. According to his contract he has to stay one year after the resignation.

14.6. Erkki Korhonen, the General Manager of the FNO resigns. Korhonen also was the main reason why Leif Segerstam refused to become the chief conductor of FNO some six years ago.

31.7. John Storgårds announces his resignation from Tampere Filharmonia after the 2008-2009 season.

6.9. Tampere Filharmonia announces that Hannu Lintu will be their next chief conductor.

27.9. It is announced that Päivi Kärkkäinen will become the new General Manager of FNO starting in December, 2007.

2.10. Helsinki Filharmonia announces John Storgårds will be their next chief conductor starting season 2008-2009.

My guess is, that the next news we will get in December when the new GM of FNO will start her post. The news will probably be: "Leif Segerstam starts as the new Chief Conductor of the FNO, starting 14.2.2008."

The unfolding events look like a huge game of "musical chairs", and this time it is Mikko Franck who has to find work elsewhere. But it seems he does not mind it, which is a pity for Finnish cultural life! We saw before that when Osmo Vänskä went to Minnesota, freelancing Jukka-Pekka Saraste came to Lahti. And it has happened so many times before! I would just say that seeing the same names in the headlines over and over again betrays a certain lack of dynamism in the Finnish orchestral scene.