The San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Giants are facing the possibility of a great loss: that of principal trumpet, Symphony softball team slugger/major Giants fan, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music faculty member Mark Inouye.
There have been rumors going around since January, when Inouye auditioned with the New York Philharmonic and was offered trial weeks with the orchestra, but now he's been spotted by Lisa Hirsch on a European tour, and that's definitely not a routine trial but something more. (It's a prominent spot and "why would you try a player out so far from your home base?" asks Hirsch.)
No stranger to the Philharmonic, Inouye has performed with them before, under the baton of Kurt Masur. Asked for comment on Friday, S.F. Symphony Director of Communications Oliver Theil confirmed that Inouye is on tour and wrote: "There is nothing finalized or additional to report beyond that." My hope is that Inouye will speak up and say "Home is where the heart is."
As orchestras prefer not to release personnel information until absolutely necessary, Theil was also restrained in responding to a question about the future of principal bassist Scott Pingel, who has just been named to the University of Michigan faculty, only confirming that "Scott will be going to Ann Arbor this fall," but unwilling (or unable) to say when Pingel will leave San Francisco.
A veteran at the the University of Michigan, Pingel has also taught at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, Vanderbilt University, and the Shanghai Conservatory.
As to the future of timpani and associate principal trumpet positions, long after auditions have been conducted but no announcements made, Theil said there will be additional auditions, the positions "to be filled next season by one-year substitutes and we'll announce those names at a later time."
Inouye and the Philharmonic will be on view Saturday, 4/25, when medici.TV carries a live and free webcast of its concert in Paris, at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time. The concert is in the newly opened Philharmonie de Paris, marking the first time an American orchestra is performing at the venue.
The program features Ravel’s Shéhérazade, with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato; Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales; R. Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier Suite; and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Nyx (which the composer will conduct in San Francisco Symphony concerts, April 30-May 3).
Also 'round the Symphony: The S.F. Symphony's advertised Special Deals on Signed CDs include albums from Yuja Wang and Joshua Bell, with extravagant John Hancocks.
Those "special deals," at $25 each, include Yuja's Fantasia, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev concerti as well as Bell's Bach CD, a two-CD/28-piece collection (from Tchaikovsky to Gershwin), and his conducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Orchestra in Beethoven's Fourth and Seventh Symphonies.