Philadelphia Orchestra's chairman steps down early

In another acceleration of leadership change at the Philadelphia Orchestra, Harold A. Sorgenti will step down as board chairman now. He had been scheduled to do so in September.

According to an orchestra spokeswoman, Sorgenti is taking a leave of absence and will instead "focus on business interests." The leave is for an unspecified period.

The orchestra had hoped to have a chairman-elect by this time, with whom Sorgenti - an investor in start-up companies - could begin sharing responsibilities. But despite numerous meetings, no successor has been named.

Among those mentioned as possibilities have been Joseph H. Jacovini, James W. Hovey, Richard Klein, Michael Zisman and Richard Worley.

Most recently, David F. Girard-diCarlo's name has surfaced. A former orchestra board member, the lawyer and Republican donor recently returned to the United States after serving as ambassador to Austria in the Bush administration.

No chairman has been determined, said interim CEO Frank Slattery, but Jacovini, a lawyer who is chairman of the finance committee, will take over as chairman for now.

"My sense is that this is going to take some time," Slattery said. "There are not a whole lot of candidates because [the post] takes up a lot of time."

Orchestra president James Undercofler left earlier this month, several months ahead of his previously announced July departure, and Slattery has taken over as searches to fill three positions are under way: president, chairman and music director.

Sorgenti said yesterday that he was looking to hand over power early so that any candidate for the president's job would know for whom he or she would be working.

"A person coming in did not want to talk to a chairman who was [only] going to be there another few months," he said. "It has to be clear who the person is going to be going forward, so I agreed to the change."

Interviews for the position of president are expected to begin in February.