Barnaby Palmer, who made a name for himself at a young age leading the San Francisco Lyric Opera (now dormant), has been traveling around the world in search of a conducting position, and now he’s hit a jackpot.
Having a Hungarian-born mother, the remarkable Gladys Perint Palmer, the young conductor tried to catch up with the language when recently assisting Iván Fischer, founder and music director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Now he is going back in time much further, relocating to near the original residence of Magyar tribes a few thousand years ago.
Just before the Music News deadline on Monday, he left a message, which read in its entirety:
I’m off to Chengdu in an hour to begin my first season as music director of the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra. We will have 17 programs for 2013-14, chamber music, etc. As you may know, Chengdu is really taking off; the fourth largest city in China, with a thriving economy.
There was no way of getting hold of him in the air, and the web was unhelpful, so I turned to his father, Simon Palmer, the dynamo behind the Lyric Opera during the company’s heyday. Palmer Sr., the British member of this multinational family, responded (from Canada) in full:
- Barnaby is engaged for a one-year contract with SSO, reputedly the #4 orchestra in China, with mutual options to extend.
- One of the very few foreigners ever to lead a Chinese symphony.
- His brief is likely to be broad and include applying such practices as PR, engagement with considerable foreign (potential donor, supporter) community both diplomatic and business. Chengdu is picking up on the growth that has been seen in Beijing, Shanghai.
- An early aim is to establish a season-long program, part of a long-term artistic plan and including invited soloists, set up a tour.
- Barnaby was guest conductor earlier this year which resulted in this invitation. They obviously liked working with him and their potential together.
- At this moment, all that is sure is it is a ground-breaking move for a Bay Area musician
It sure is. We’ll keep an eye on the story. Incidentally, if you want to find out something about this major organization in China’s fourth-largest city, go to its website, and marvel at the news from 2012. Perhaps Palmer will help update and modernize communications.