Philadelphia Orchestra cellist to Seattle
Efe Baltacıgil, associate principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, has accepted the principal cellist spot with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. He starts this fall with the opening of the 2011-2012 season.
Philadelphia Orchestra cellist to Seattle
Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
Efe Baltacıgil, associate principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, has accepted the principal cellist spot with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. He starts this fall with the opening of the 2011–2012 season.
Officially, Baltacıgil is taking a leave of absence from Philadelphia for 2011-12, giving him the option of returning the following season. This kind of testing-the-waters period is customary in the orchestral world.
More background here.
This is a great loss to the PO. Efe is a wonderful player and will be sorely missed.— orchestrapal- How does this work, do we get at least a draft choice?— tr88
- What's the deal with the typography in this story? Specifically, why isn't there a dot above the first "i" in Baltacigil in the text?— J H
- I haven't seen the orchestra in years, so I'll defer to others re: his ability, but that's a bizarre pic.— phillygwm
- I haven't seen the orchestra in years, so I'll defer to others re: his ability, but that's a bizarre pic.— phillygwm
- J H, the i without the dot is a Turkish character. Mr. Baltacıgil is Turkish. Very sad to see him go.— orangebison
Peter Dobrin is a classical music critic and culture writer for The Inquirer. Since 1989, he has written music reviews, features, news and commentary for the paper, covering such topics as the Philadelphia Museum of Art at the Venice Biennale, expansion of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Philadelphia Orchestra's bankruptcy declaration in 2011, Philadelphia's evolving performing arts center and the general health of arts and culture.
Dobrin was a French horn player. He earned an undergraduate degree in performance from the University of Miami, and received a master's degree in music criticism from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Elliott Galkin. He has no time to practice today.
