This summer, the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra selected Zimmerman to be only its third musical director in more than 50 years. He’s still transitioning. He spoke with The Examiner about the selection process, fundraising challenges and his plan for the orchestra.
The interview process — which involved in-concert tryouts — have you ever been through a similar experience?
I’m afraid so, many times. It’s the way it is. … For most orchestras, there is an advertisement for a music director, usually hundreds of people apply for the job. … And they whittle it down to about five or six or seven candidates and they each take a concert in the season and go for a week for a variety of interviews and performances, and then they make a decision.
How tough are fundraising efforts right now?
Everyone’s always having trouble with fundraising. When the economic climate is like this and people are tightening their belts, it’s even worse. Other than the music making part of the jobs, that is the biggest element. I’d like the orchestra to expand its services; we need more money to do that.
Do people understand the work and skill that goes into an orchestra? What have you noticed about the caliber of the FSO?
Making a comparison with this orchestra and the National Symphony or the Baltimore Symphony is inappropriate. Those are full time orchestras, where they do two or three concerts every single week, and they’re on full time salaries. … There are a lot of very talented and very high caliber instrumentalists in the area as a whole, and we get a lot of them.
Has splitting your time between here and [the Hartt School in] Connecticut been difficult?
It seemed to me very important, for me and the way the orchestra is set up and what I want to do, that I need to be [in Fairfax] quite a lot. And so I made a decision that we would move, but I couldn’t just move immediately because I have a job here. I’m doing two jobs this year, and then moving in the summer.
– William C. Flook
