Dutoit named to Philly post

The Philadelphia Orchestra has announced that Charles Dutoit will assume the new post of chief conductor and artistic advisor, effective in the fall of 2008. Dutoit, 70, succeeds Christoph Eschenbach whose five year tenure was an uneven one. Dutoit first conducted the PO in 1980. Beginning in 1990, he served as the orchestra’s music director at the Mann Center before resigning in 1999. Dutoit’s contract, which runs to 2012, calls for him to lead eight programs in Philly, plus appearances at Carnegie Hall and any tours. He also continues as the orchestra’s artistic director and principal conductor during the summer season at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York. However, Dutoit will not be the PO’s artistic director. The orchestra board will initiate its selection process for a music director this summer. Dutoit was for 25 years the music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He quit that post in 2002 after an acrimonious and very public dust-up with the MSO’s musicians.