Bob Keefer had the scoop on the sudden disappearance of Oregon Bach Festival Executive Director John Evans last November, on his Eugene Art Talk blog, here:
In a wide-ranging interview last week, Evans said he gave notice on Oct. 4 to the UO’s acting senior vice president and provost, Frances Bronet, that he would be leaving the festival’s top administrative job, which he has held for seven years. His exact title was general director and president of OBF.
Shortly after that, Evans’ name quietly disappeared from the festival’s website, which began to list OBF artistic administration director Michael Anderson, also a clarinetist with Eugene Symphony, as interim executive director. No other public announcement was made of the change.
Rumors quickly circulated that Evans was forced out of his job. …
Here’s hoping we didn’t have to pay him a full $940K Gottfredson to leave. His replacement has now been found, and again Keefer has the scoop, here:
The word at the HLGR watering hole is that the Bach shakeup was due to impropriety, and UO’s lawyers got involved to make things change quietly without interrupting donations.
They were lousy tippers.
My sources told me that Evans simply wanted to leave, and was not forced out. These are people who would know. Whether they were being forthright with me, I have no way of knowing for sure. They both seemed rather surprised at the allegation that he was forced out.
He was forced out, and it was a very good thing. As severance we paid him until this April – about $80K total. My sources are solid.
So why was he forced out, and why was it a “very good thing”?