A historic trip to Cuba. A return to Carnegie Hall. A renewal of recording projects with the Swedish label BIS. A triumphant four-country European tour. It has been a remarkable period of rehabilitation for the Minnesota Orchestra. Just think: Less than three years ago, the organization was mired in a ruinous labor dispute and teetering on the brink of extinction.
Much remains uncertain about the future, with orchestras everywhere battling to stop declining attendance figures. In these rapidly evolving circumstances, the relatively short three-year extension to music director Osmo Vänskä's contract, announced in May 2015, was probably the sensible option for management and conductor.
It does, though, snap sharply into focus the real possibility that Vänskä could be gone by August 2019. And that raises the delicate question: When should the orchestra start considering who might replace him?
There is, experts say, no time like the present.
Ulrich Knörzer, violinist and board member at the world-class Berlin Philharmonic — an orchestra that recently replaced departing artistic director Simon Rattle — insists the search for new leadership should begin "at least three years in advance."
Why so far out? "Because all sought-after conductors have their schedules packed for years ahead," Knörzer said.
Alex Ross, the New Yorker's esteemed classical music critic, said a process of constant monitoring is required to find the right conductor. "Even if the current [music] director is in the early stages of a relationship," he said, "possible successors should be kept in view, whether by way of guest-conducting visits or field trips to other organizations."
The Minnesota Orchestra is not in the early stages of its relationship with Vänskä. By 2019 he will have served 16 years as music director, the third longest tenure in the orchestra's history.