Looks Like Chicago Found Deborah Rutter’s Replacement

It is looking like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is going to replace Deborah Rutter with Vancouver Symphony CEO Jeff Alexander. The 9/2/2014 edition of the Chicago Tribune reports that the decision will be formalized during a board meeting today but at this stage, that process will be mostly pro forma. Nonetheless, details such as when Alexander’s tenure will begin should be announced shortly thereafter.

The Tribune article, by Mark Caro, provides the 411 on Alexander’s background and by many accounts, he’s a solid executive with a low-key personality and it shouldn’t come as surprise if that sounds very much like the professional profile of one recently departed CSO chief executive.

For now, keep an eye out for the official announcement and if it comes along early enough in the day, you can find details here via an afternoon update.

Update: the CSO has made a press statement available but it is only available in PDF format which makes the task of copy/paste into a content management system a royal pain in the neck.  They could have simply made the release available in something like a MS Word or google doc format but I’m going to conclude that they just don’t care all the much about making it as easy as possible (and therefore more likely) for other people spread their news for them. The lesson to learn here is don’t make people track you down and ask for content in a format you should have made available to begin with.