Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times Stephen Williamson performing with St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble in 2008.The New York Philharmonic’s solution is now the Chicago Symphony’s problem. The Philharmonic addressed its four-season lack of a principal clarinetist by hiring Stephen Williamson away from the Chicago Symphony, the orchestra disclosed on Thursday. Mr. Williamson was one of the first appointments made under the watch of Chicago’s music director, Riccardo Muti and is in the middle of only his second season there. Chicago will now have to find a replacement, although a Chicago Orchestra spokeswoman said Mr. Williamson officially was on a one-year leave.
With Stnley Drucker’s retirement from the Philharmonic in 2009 after 60 years, the orchestra held auditions for a principal clarinetist but did not pick a winner. It then thought it had scored a coup by luring a star in the clarinet world, Ricardo Morales, from the Philadelphia Orchestra, but Mr. Morales later backed out. The Philharmonic has been inviting prominent players in for a week of performances on stage and in solo auditions. Mr. Williamson passed through in the final week of November, for a program consisting of the New York premiere of a symphony by Steven Stucky, the Barber Violin Concerto and the Rachmaninoff “Symphonic Dances.â€
In the end, Alan Gilbert, the music director, opted for Mr. Williamson with the approval of an orchestral audition c! ommittee. Starting his job next season, he will know the way to Avery Fisher Hall: from 2003 to 2011, he was a principal clarinetist at the Metropolitan Opera. While his tenure was brief in Chicago, Mr. Williamson made a mark. He was heard with the orchestra when it recorded the score for the movie “Lincoln.â€
