Less than a month after Jacques Lacombe abruptly stepped down as music director amid acrimonious weather, the Orchestre classique de Montréal has released its reformatted 2024-25 season, deploying a range of highly scrutinized conductors to take over.
While the Orchestre classique de Montréal (OCM) had laconically announced, on Friday afternoon, July 19, in a brief press release, “the departure of its artistic director and principal conductor, maestro Jacques Lacombe” after only one season in this position, the conductor had reacted strongly in the following days on social media and in the press, calling into question the governance of the institution, in particular the administration under the direction of Taras Kulish.
Chapter closed
In the remarks that the leader had made to the Duty On July 25, we also felt the paramount importance of preserving one’s reputation: “In my field, when there is a sudden departure, we wonder if it is not a case of harassment or #MeToo. However, this is not the case. I also wanted to send the message to future employers that it was not my decision to leave after just one year, as the OCM press release suggested,” Jacques Lacombe said at the time.
Since then, several things have happened or, precisely, have not happened. The board of directors (CA), through a Facebook post, simply expressed its “disagreement with the comments of maestro Jacques Lacombe following the OCM’s decision to terminate his contract”, deploring “that he chose to make such comments in the public arena”. No other statement has been or will be made.
But, on the other hand, one could expect an immediate and massive revolt of the musicians, standing up behind their eminent leader, begging the CA and the management to reconsider their position. Despite majority support during the crisis, as revealed The Duty On July 31, absolutely nothing happened once it had resulted in a break-up. The silence was absolute.
Therefore, on August 2, the management celebrated the institution’s “85 years of resilience and musical talent” on the Facebook platform. The sentence “thanks to the passion, dedication and determination of each member of the OCM, we have been able to overcome each of these trials, with our heads held high, despite the difficulties” ended with a “Thank you to our exceptionally talented musicians.”
Expected names
The die was cast for the definitive opening of a new chapter, even if, at the base, the choice of Jacques Lacombe was brilliant. This very fine musician had also spectacularly raised the level of the OCM in one year. It is now necessary to put the whole “OCM post-Boris Brott” project back on the drawing board.
The updated 2024-2025 season published on Wednesday reads like a review of the roster of potential successors to Jacques Lacombe. This is also the tone of the remarks of the general manager, Taras Kulish, met last Saturday behind the scenes of the presentation of The bat of the Canadian Vocal Arts Institute. He told us in essence that the OCM was giving itself this season to determine to whom the musical future of the ensemble would be entrusted.
It is therefore no surprise that we find Simon Rivard, who directed The bat and will provide a lyrical Pergolesi-Menotti diptych to open the season on October 8; Andrei Feher, who lost his orchestra in Kitchener, for the benefit event on November 20, and Mélanie Leonard, who, in May, will conduct concertmaster Marc Djokic in the Serenade by Bernstein.
The OCM will also be entrusted to Adam Johnson in a “Jazz & Jeans” concert, to Véronique Lussier in a family concert and to two guests: the American-Panamanian Kalena Bovell for the Black History Month concert and the Israeli Roï Azoulay for the traditional Messiah.
The biggest surprise is the 9e Symphony Beethoven’s performance at the Maison symphonique, closing on May 31, was given to Philippe Bourque, the conductor of the Choeur St-Laurent. When we remember that Yuli Turovsky had fought all his life with the board of directors of I Musici to obtain the means to fulfill his dream of conducting once the 9e Symphony Beethoven, a prestigious and expensive undertaking if ever there was one, we say to ourselves that things seem to be going rather well at the OCM.