Wigmore Hall Artistic Director to Exit

LONDON – Paul Kildea, artistic director of Wigmore Hall, has announced his resignation. John Gilhooly, the hall’s executive director, will take on Kildea’s artistic responsibilities until the Spring of 2006, by which time the board of directors will decide whether to split the position back into two separate jobs.

Kildea, in the post for two years, is leaving in order to devote more time to his freelance-conducting career. "Although hectic and a real balancing act, the last two years have been a wonderful time for me", he said, referring to the fact that he has pursued his own schedule simultaneously with the Wigmore job. “But this period has also coincided with an intensifying of my own performing career, and with operas at Aldeburgh, the Hamburg Staatsoper and Perth in the immediate future, with concert work in Paris, London and Australia, and with a new book commission, I have reached the point where it is impossible to sustain both lives.”

Kildea goes on to explain that, since he has finalized Wigmore’s next season and laid the groundwork for 2006-’07, “now is as good a time as any” to leave.

Sir John Tusa, chairman of the Board of Trustees, commented, "While continuing to maintain its great artistic tradition, Paul Kildea has given the Hall a fresh approach to programming, building and creating an imaginative series including new and established artists since the refurbishment last October. The Board of Trustees wishes him every possible success for his future career."