Columbus Symphony MD to Exit

In what appears to be an amicable arrangement, the Columbus Symphony and its music director, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, will part ways at the end of next season. Zeitouni, who has a new baby girl in his home base of Montreal, will have been in the job just four years.

Zeitouni arrived as the orchestra had successfully shed its $1.5 million debt, achieved largely by entering a five-year agreement with the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA) to oversee its administrative functions, at a reputed savings of $750,000. That move followed a period of major strife that saw the firing of the executive director and the music director, as well as a musicians’ strike. Ultimately Roland Valliere vacated the post of president, saving $100,000-plus,  and the musicians agreed to a major cut in pay: $35,000, down from $55,000 in 2008.