BOZEMAN, Mont. – The Bozeman Symphony will be asking its donors and sponsors to pull out their checkbooks to host guest conductors until a permanent replacement is found for recently-resigned Matthew Savery.
Board Chair Stephen Schachman said ever since Conductor Matthew Savery resigned amid allegations of inappropriate behavior, bullying, and harassment, the Symphony has had to come up with additional funding.
“We are going to have some more expenses bringing in guest conductors,” said Schachman. “Their fees, their expenses, the search and all of that. So we will be asking people to dig a little deeper. But we do think we are in good shape and should be able to come through this.”
The Symphony has put together a selection committee made up of musicians, board and community members that hope to have the search finished by spring of 2020. Schachman said although the opening has not been advertised yet, there are already more than 50 people who have shown interest nationwide.
“According to our musicians and what we have seen so far, there are people available that will meet all of our criteria,” said Schachman.
The investigation into Savery that is being completed through a third party is almost complete. Schachman said, however, the plan moving forward is to only inform the donors of the results, not the public.
“My understanding is, that she has completed all of her interviews and is writing the report at this time,” said Schachman. “It will not be made public, would not have been made public in any case. The board will review what we received and see if we can do anything differently that would be better for our musicians, for our staff and the community.”
But the Symphony is a non-profit, which is why the donors will get more information that the general public.
“We will be going back to our patrons and sponsors and explaining the whole process that we have been through over the past year and what we are going through,” Schachman said.
