BSO’s next conductor search awaits, with some wounds still healing

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Eight months after the Boston Symphony Orchestra declined to renew conductor Andris Nelsons’ contract, the search for his successor has yet to officially begin. That’s not…

Eight months after the Boston Symphony Orchestra declined to renew conductor Andris Nelsons’ contract, the search for his successor has yet to officially begin.

That’s not unusual. The process of choosing a new music director — especially for an orchestra as storied as the BSO — can be exceedingly deliberate, involving interviews and auditions with conductors from around the world.

But it’s also true that the search comes at an unsettled time in the renowned ensemble’s 145-year history, as a strident minority of BSO musicians, some patrons, and at least one trustee emeritus continue to call for the Nelsons decision to be overturned.

The BSO’s leadership, meanwhile, is focused on the future. In an interview with the Globe, orchestra president and CEO Chad Smith said he and the board of trustees are committed to working with musicians to find the most talented person to take over one of classical music’s most coveted jobs.

“Boston is one of the truly great cities in the world, and this is an iconic orchestra,” Smith said. “We’re going to get the extraordinary conductor our city deserves.”

The provocative statements made on the radio by Sievers, and echoed by BSO principal clarinetist William Hudgins and BSO donor and trustee emeritus Jan Brett, are a residue of the outrage incited last spring when the BSO board announced in a vaguely worded email that after 13 years, Nelsons would not be returning for the 2027-28 season.

Relations between the board and the orchestra appeared to be on the mend in August after a 94-percent majority of musicians approved a new three-year contract. The deal not only increases their salaries — by 12.5 percent over three years — and ups their guaranteed annual pension to $94,000, but also gives them a greater say in artistic matters.

Musicians will not have the last word on who takes the baton when Nelsons departs Boston next summer; that decision will be made by Smith and the trustees.

Yet there is a faction of the orchestra that continues to…

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