The Dudamel Succession Simulation
Hi all,
I wanted to let you know about a new project I’ve been working on. Summary & link below!
Take care,
—Will
The Dudamel Succession Simulation
The LA Philharmonic will soon form a synod the likes of which the town hasn’t seen since the aughts: a search committee, for the purpose of replacing outgoing music director Gustavo Dudamel. The committee’s job is to cycle through a list of hopefuls and has-beens and produce a short list of the best candidates. If you’re eager to hear about the finalists, you’re not alone.
In the interest of speeding up the process we’ve created the Data-driven Utility for Determining Artistic Merit and Evaluating Leadership, or D.U.D.A.M.E.L. It’s an algorithm that rates candidates based on their relative fitness for the LA Phil position. Think of it like a poor man’s McKinsey consult: we use rudimentary surveys, data collection and web scraping, and an abusive amount of ChatGPT, to arrive at this predictive monstrosity.
Is this the way we’ll vet conductors in the future? Or just some horrible, dystopian scenario to avoid at all costs? » You’ll surely find your answer here. «