CSO I: A Glimpse of the Future?
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With the orchestra in residence at Ravinia, summer is usually a slow season for the CSO. Yet Gehret’s appointment to keep Fogel’s chair warm is considered a sign of his rising influence. Gehret arrived at the CSO almost five years ago from the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, where he served as director of development. When the CSO began looking for a new development chief, Gehret was a leading candidate, yet few thought he could be coaxed from his cushy post. Fogel made a generous offer, though, and Gehret moved east. By all accounts Gehret has done a good job raising funds for the massive Symphony Center project, and his responsibilities have broadened to include marketing.
Fogel has no plans to leave the CSO, and sources say that if he were to vacate the presidency, the top candidate to replace him would be Ravinia’s executive director, Zarin Mehta, who now works closely with Fogel and music director Daniel Barenboim in programming Symphony Center. And in this age of faxes, beepers, and teleconferences, it’s unlikely that any weighty decisions will fall to Gehret during Fogel’s sabbatical. Still, Gehret’s appointment signals that, at the very least, he’d be a serious contender should the job open up in the future.
The local theater industry’s merger specialist has struck again. After Russell Vandenbroucke announced earlier this month that he will step down as artistic director of Northlight Theatre, Organic Touchstone artistic director Ina Marlowe reportedly wasted no time in approaching Northlight about a possible merger of the two companies. A source familiar with Marlowe’s inquiry says she suggested moving Organic Touchstone from 2851 N. Halsted to Northlight’s new 350-seat theater at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie and placing her in charge of the combined operations.
