Lorna McGhee, Boston Symphony's Principal Flute, Reportedly Exits

Lorna McGhee, principal flute of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has reportedly quit — the first principal player to leave since the orchestra dismissed music director Andris Nelsons.

The Scottish flute virtuoso joined the Boston Symphony specifically because Nelsons conducted it, according to the report on Slippedisc. Forum discussion among flutists now places her next post as principal flute of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Neither orchestra has confirmed the move. But last night McGhee appeared in what Slippedisc describes as a fond farewell photograph with her favourite maestro, published alongside the report.

Why does this departure matter?

McGhee's exit marks the first confirmed principal-level loss tied to the fallout from Nelsons' dismissal. She is not simply changing chairs — she joined Boston because of one conductor, and that conductor is now gone.

The reported move would also continue a chain of principal-flute transfers among the world's top orchestras:

• Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson left the Chicago Symphony's principal flute chair to join the Berlin Philharmonic, a move reported in March 2025.
• McGhee would now reportedly fill that vacated Chicago seat.
• Boston, in turn, faces its own principal-flute vacancy following Nelsons' departure.

The takeaway: one dismissal in Boston has set off a domino effect across at least three major orchestras' flute sections.

What has been confirmed so far?

Very little, formally. Both the Boston Symphony and the Chicago Symphony have stayed silent on the reported appointment. The evidence in the public record consists of the Slippedisc report, flute forum chatter, and the farewell photograph of McGhee with Nelsons posted the night the story ran.

Orchestra appointments of this rank normally remain unannounced until contracts are signed and audition processes are formally closed, so official word may take weeks.

For now, the concrete facts are these: McGhee has reportedly left Boston, she reportedly heads to Chicago, and her departure makes her the first principal to go in the aftermath of Nelsons' dismissal — with the confirmation still pending from both orchestras.

If the Chicago appointment holds, the Boston Symphony begins its post-Nelsons rebuild with a hole in one of its most exposed orchestra chairs, and the search for a successor will be an early test of the institution's ability to retain top talent without its former music director.