Boston Symphony in Crisis Over Dismissal of Andris Nelsons

When the Boston Symphony Orchestra announced in March that it would not renew the contract of its music director, Andris Nelsons, the news set off a storm of anger and protest.Patrons greeted him at concerts with pointed, rousing ovations, while musicians wore red roses in support of their embattled conductor.Now, three months after the crisis erupted, the leader of the Boston Symphony acknowledged in an interview that it mishandled the termination of Nelsons’s contract, which plunged the orchestra into one of the most tumultuous periods in its 145-year history, as it approaches the start of its pastoral Tanglewood season.Chad Smith, the orchestra’s president and chief executive, said that the Boston Symphony’s board initially sought to “navigate these challenging times and challenging conversations with the orchestra internally,” after the news became public, despite “the difficult feeling that the orchestra has for me and the board at this moment.”“I probably kept my head down too long in trying to deal with this internally, but I recognize now that these questions are not going away,” Smith said in his most extensive public remarks on Nelsons’s dismissal yet.

“We have to be more forthcoming.”“It was certainly not our intention for this to be rolled out in this manner,” he said, adding: “This is a difficult time.”Nelsons remains the Boston Symphony’s music director after the 2026-2027 Tanglewood season.Even as Smith seemingly sought to strike a conciliatory and transparent tone — recently making a personal appearance for contract negotiations with the Players’ Committee, which represents the musicians — he said that the board would not yield to demands by orchestra members to reappoint Nelsons.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or su...