owner, complainedThe plaintiff does not possess the necessary physical strength to be a leader of the trombone section; she is not in the position to clearly lead the trombone group. Apart from that, she lacks the required empathy to translate the artistic wishes of the General Music DirectorConant successfully sued the City of Munich, after a lengthy legal procedure, in 1983. Only thereafter was she paid the same male colleagues along with being reinstated as full first soloist status. The court found that “The suit is permissible because the change in work assignments, due to the lack of a substantiated argument, is unjustified.” “The accused has not justified their demotion with facts, but rather generalized value judgments.” “Above and beyond that, they do not say when (date) the alleged mistakes happened. They also do not mention when the plaintiff was given a warning.” “It is therefore not possible for the court to determine what the plaintiff did wrong, or determinable whether she took the alleged warnings to heart, or in other words, whether the mistakes were made again after the warning.”Reportedly, Conant's audition was the last to be held using blind audition. Recent history After Celibidache's sudden death in 1996, James Levine was chief conductor of the orchestra from 1999 to 2004. Christian Thielemann became the orchestra's music director in September 2004, joined by Wouter Hoekstra as Intendant. However, in 2007, Hoekstra was dismissed from his post after reported disputes with Thielemann. In 2009, the orchestra announced the scheduled conclusion of Thielemann's tenure in 2011. Thielemann's demand to have a say over the choice of guest conductors was not approved. In March 2010, Lorin Maazel was named the orchestra's next chief conductor, effective with the 2012–2013 season. Early in 2014, Maazel cancelled concert engagements as a result of ill health. Subsequently, in June 2014, he announced his resignation as music director of the Munich Philharmonic, with immediate effect. In January 2013, the orchestra announced the appointment of Valery Gergiev as its next principal conductor as of 2015, with an initial contract through 2020. Gergiev was dismissed in 2022 after Gergiev declined to repudiate Putin's 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In March 2022, Lahav Shani first guest-conducted the orchestra, in a benefit concert for Ukraine. Shani returned in September 2022 for an additional guest-conducting appearance. In February 2023, the orchestra and the Munich City Council announced the appointment of Shani as