Gary Ginstling, the New York Philharmonic’s president and chief executive, abruptly resigned on Thursday after just a year on the job, leaving the orchestra in limbo as it grapples with challenges including heated labor talks and an investigation into its workplace culture after two players were accused of misconduct.
Behind the scenes, there were rising tensions between Ginstling and the Philharmonic’s board, staff and musicians, according to someone familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity to describe private conversations. The person said he also had disagreements with the star conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who, in a major coup, was tapped to become the Philharmonic’s next music and artistic director.
Some Philharmonic employees found Ginstling to be opaque, the individual said, and they complained that he was away from New York during critical moments, including at times when the administration was dealing with an outcry among musicians over the players accused of misconduct. Ginstling, 58, the former executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, maintained a home near the capital, where his family lives, and had been shuttling between there and New York, where he rented an apartment. (A friend said that he only spent weekends away from New York, and worked long hours for the orchestra.)
A final flare-up occurred during an orchestra tour in China this summer, the individual said, with some players blaming Ginstling for several logistical problems. The orchestra had trouble fitting all of its musicians onstage at an opera house in Guangzhou. A planned speech from the stage by the American ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, was unexpectedly scrapped. (He later spoke at a reception for the orchestra.) In the end, large swaths of the opera house, which seats more than 1,800 people, were empty, an embarrassment for an ensemble of the Philharmonic’s caliber.
In a statement released by the Philharmonic, Ginstling said: “The New York Philharmonic is an extraordinary institution, and it has been an honor to be a part of it. However, it has become clear to me that the institution needs a different type of leadership, and I have tendered my resignation.”
He declined to comment further in a message on Thursday.
The Philharmonic said that it would convene a “transition leadership team” that includes the chairmen of the Philharmonic’s board, Peter W. May and Oscar L. Tang, and Ginstling’s predecessor, Deborah Borda, who had held the post from 2017 until last year.
May and Tang, who declined to be interviewed, informed the Philharmonic players, staff and board of the decision on Thursday afternoon. The orchestra will begin a tour in Colorado next week.
Ginstling’s departure comes as the orchestra’s musicians and the administration are in the midst of heated talks over a new labor contract; the current agreement expires in September. The musicians, who recently walked out of contract negotiations, have been seeking large wage increases.
As the orchestra prepares for its 2024-25 season, it is facing another leadership void: It will not have a music director. The Philharmonic’s current maestro, Jaap van Zweden, ends his six-year tenure this summer, and his successor, Dudamel, does not start in the role until 2026.
Ginstling took the reins at the Philharmonic last year, at a high point for the organization, saying he was eager to help the organization “set itself up for long-term success.” A glittering, $550 million renovation of its home, David Geffen Hall, had recently been completed ahead of schedule, after the project had stalled for years. The ensemble had poached Dudamel from the Los Angeles Philharmonic to serve as its music and artistic director.
As he began his tenure, attendance at the Philharmonic’s concerts was stronger than it was for many other orchestras trying to emerge from the pandemic, and last fall the institution received a $40 million gift.
Ginstling’s resignation is effective immediately, a jarring end to his tenure. But when he was named as Borda’s successor, the Philharmonic seemed to take pains to ensure a smooth transition.
Ginstling, a veteran orchestra executive, joined the Philharmonic in 2022 as its executive director. That allowed him to work alongside Borda — a major figure in the orchestra world who had previously helped bring the Los Angeles Philharmonic to new heights — before succeeding her when she stepped down last summer.
Even as Ginstling took over the orchestra, Borda remained an influential figure, advising the Philharmonic’s board, and staying in close touch with Dudamel, whom she had recruited in Los Angeles. She assisted with fund-raising and appeared at concerts and galas. She maintained a Philharmonic email address and an assistant. Some in the music world warned that it would not be easy for a newcomer to operate in her shadow.
In recent months, the relationship between the orchestra and Ginstling grew more strained. An article in New York magazine in April revived accusations of misconduct against two players. The administration had tried to fire the players in 2018, but was forced to reinstate them in 2020 after the musicians’ union challenged their dismissal. The article prompted an uproar among musicians. (The two players have denied wrongdoing.)
Ginstling suspended the two players with pay and promised an investigation into the Philharmonic’s workplace culture. But the ensemble has yet to decide the fate of the players, and some of their peers have said they would not perform alongside them. Early on, Ginstling seemed to indicate that the orchestra had few options because it was bound by a 2020 ruling by an independent arbitrator that found the players had been terminated without just cause.
“The determination was through binding arbitration,” Ginstling said this spring. “Binding is the key word.”
The two players sued the Philharmonic, claiming that they had been wrongfully suspended.
Under Ginstling, the orchestra’s response to the controversy was sometimes muddled. Shortly after appointing an outside lawyer, Katya Jestin, to lead the investigation into the organization’s culture, he quietly authorized a separate inquiry by another lawyer, Tracey Levy, to “receive and investigate allegations of sexual harassment or otherwise inappropriate conduct by musicians or other current employees of the Philharmonic.”
Ginstling did not always seem to be on the same page as Dudamel. Dudamel initially articulated a grand vision to create an expansive youth education program in New York similar to what he had built in Los Angeles, which would be an expensive proposition for the Philharmonic. Ginstling was more restrained.
“We have no intention of replicating what he did in Los Angeles,” he said in an interview last year. “Gustavo is a different artist than he was when he began in Los Angeles. And we just look forward to imagining a future with Gustavo and the New York Philharmonic.”
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