Matthew VanBesien just nabbed a world-class position as executive director of the New York Philharmonic — a position that likely pays on the sweet end of six figures, although the Phil isn’t disclosing the figure. To hear the New York Times tell it, however, the guy just parachuted onto an IED. VanBesien, a 42-year-old former head of the Houston Symphony currently overseeing Australia’s Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, took the job after a number of others refused it (or, poetically, “rebuffed overtures”), and apparently he’s in for a world of pain:
VanBesien faces enormous challenges: persistent and large deficits, labor friction, hefty pension liabilities, the lack of an established summer home like the Boston Symphony’s at Tanglewood, and competition from orchestras visiting Carnegie Hall. Problems even extend to the orchestra’s widely scorned auditorium, Avery Fisher Hall: Philharmonic officials say the hall needs renovations, which will displace the orchestra for an extended period, according to plans in the works with Lincoln Center, which owns the building.
Not only that, but VanBesien’s coming from a land where the government throws money at its artistic institutions — Australia provides half of the Melbourne Symphony’s budget. When it comes to picking the pockets of culture-loving swells, he’s clearly out of practice. But the former French horn player faced near-biblical challenges both in Texas and Down Under: floods, concert-hall renovations, the collapse of Enron. If the NYP’s in crisis, VanBesien may well be the person to save it. New Yorkers will find out when he arrives this fall.