Rachel Worby Quits Pasadena Pops
By Bill Peters
Published: Thursday, August 12th, 2010
Rachel Worby will leave the Pasadena Pops at the end of the season - Photo by Terry Miller
Worby Quits Pasadena Pops – She’s Gone in 7 weeks!
By Bill Peters
Another startling announcement has come out of the offices of the Pasadena Symphony and Pops. Rachael Worby, 10 year Music Director of the Pasadena Pops, three of them under the jurisdiction of the Pasadena Symphony Association, announced that she will leave the orchestra immediately following the close of the final concert on Sept. 25.
In a radio interview heard on station KGIL last week, Worby told interviewer P.J. Ochlan that the transition from the Pasadena Pops to the integration with Pasadena Symphony had been rocky.
The turmoil apparently spilled over onto the Symphony Board as they were faced with an array of financial and personnel difficulties. Several Pops Board members who initially agreed to serve with the Pasadena Symphony Association soon left. Jorge Mester, the Symphony Music Director for 25 years, left the orchestra this year under a cloud as to whether he walked out on them or if they terminated his contract. The swift leaving of Worby only raises the level of speculation about the organization. There is every indication that community financial support has been forthcoming, but at the same time, the Symphony Association has put out a goodly sum of money for its new venue for the Pasadena Pops at the Rose Bowl. Although no figures have been released by the Symphony, attendance to the Area H site seems to have been promising.
Information released by the Symphony office today (Aug. 11) at 4:11 p.m. contained the usual statements from Worby and Board President Melinda Shea. Worby said, “Being Music Director of the Pasadena Pops has been a joyful, fulfilling experience. I wish the Pasadena Symphony and POPS all continued success.” Shea followed that with, “On behalf of the Board of Directors, the Pasadena Symphony Association thanks Rachael Worby for her dedicated years of enthusiastic advocacy for live symphonic music and the performing arts in Pasadena. Her leadership and support throughout the merger of the Pasadena Symphony and the POPS has helped make this organization a treasured community resource providing diverse musical concerts year round. We wish her all the success.”
Two concerts remain for the Pops orchestra: Aug. 25 with “All That Jazz” and Worby’s final date with the orchestra, Sept. 25 for “Hooray for Hollywood.”
No related posts.
[...] the Full Story at Pasadena [...]
Worby. Large on personality (crazy), light on talent.