Photo by Roger Mastroianni
It's one of the most misquoted sayings. What Thoreau wrote in the conclusion of Walden was: "If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away." Still, let's use the alternative for a hackneyed but — in this case — accurate headline.
Cleveland Orchestra principal percussionist Jacob Nissly ended his two-year run there at this month's Blossom Festival, and will join San Francisco Symphony in the same capacity, in a homecoming of sorts as a veteran of Michael Tilson Thomas' New World Symphony. Nissly will succeed Jack Van Geem, who retired last year. James Lee Wyatt III, who has been acting principal, remains a section percussionist.
A native of Iowa, Nissly holds degrees from Northwestern University in Illinois and from the Juilliard School in New York. He also serves as instructor of percussion at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester.
An audition to replace Nissly in Cleveland is scheduled to be held in late October; meanwhile Marc Damoulakis has been appointed as acting principal percussionist when the orchestra's 2013-2014 season commences Sept. 19 in Severance Hall.
In the same section, there is the ongoing question of principal timpani, a position not normally attracting as much attention as it did during the SFS orchestra strike earlier this year.
"L'affaire Herbert" about SFS principal timpanist David Herbert's planned departure for the Chicago Symphony, became a poster-child issue for the union whose press release compared "losing a world-class timpanist to Chicago" to "the San Francisco Giants hypothetically losing Buster Posey to the Dodgers." (In the spring, the Giants were still looking like World Champions, but now fall beckons, and they are 18 games behind Los Angeles.)
Herbert, who also came from MTT's "farm team" New World Symphony training orchestra, complained about the SFS management's failure to recognize musicians' commitment, lack of practice space to accommodate his instruments, and how he was forced to rent his own practice area and furnish it with extra instruments. Negotiations for his contract extension had been going on for seven months at that point.
Management responded that "when [Herbert] showed interest in the CSO [Chicago Symphony] position, he was offered sizeable additional salary and longevity bonus to stay in San Francisco, on top of his current salary of $214,000. To underscore our support for David, he also receives 16 weeks paid vacation a year, six more than most musicians, to pursue personal artistic projects important to him as we greatly value our musicians' varied artistic interests outside of Davies Symphony Hall as members of our vibrant arts community."
Herbert is still carried on the SFS website as principal timpani, but bigamy raises its head with the Chicago Symphony's appointment of Herbert.
Not so says San Francisco Symphony: "Principal Timpani David Herbert will be on a one-year leave of absence this season, performing with the Chicago Symphony. Alex Orfaly will fill the position of principal timpani as a one-year substitute."
And this Music News column is done with anything percussive for now.