Jeffrey Day, of The State newspaper, wrote a piece that ran in today’s paper about Charles Wadsworth, the director of Spoleto’s chamber music series since 1977, who announced his retirement last weekend after the 2009 festival.
Day writes that “some” speculated that this would happen after Geoff Nuttall, the principal violinist of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, was named his associate director, the first time Wadsworth’s has needed an assistant.
To my knowledge, I’m the lone speculator (here, here, here, and here). I could be wrong.
As Day writes:
Some had speculated that Wadsworth was planning to retire, but he didn’t even tell the festival leadership until the day before he announced it to his audience.
And:
Some had speculated that Wadsworth was preparing for retirement when Geoff Nuttall, violinist for the St. Lawrence String Quartet, became co-host and assistant coordinator for the series this year.
One Comment
John…..
Pissing contests with the Post & Courier (the “gotcha” gaffes lists) and Jeffrey Day make you look small and, worse, insecure.
There were “some” (a lot, actually) who were speculating about Charles Wadsworth’s eventual inability to continue as SFUSA chamber music host even before you arrived in Charleston, so no matter what you may have written, you were only catching up.
“Some” say (in fact, Nigel Redden says) that there will be a “national search” for Wadsworth’s successor. Is this in fact the case according to your sources? What does Redden’s statement mean? That Nuttall was a stopgap? Have you sounded out any of the chamber music audience members about their reactions to Nuttall’s handling of the “host”’s duties during this year’s festival…surely there are those who think Charles needs a more charismatic successor, some who are pleased, some who are on the fence, etc?
If it all matters enough for you to have to twitch your skirts and cry “But I said it first,” then it matters enough to do some serious digging.