Berlin - The Berlin Philharmonic will hold a secret ballot today to decide who gets the coveted post of chief conductor.
The current favourite is Britain's Sir Simon Rattle (44). Another front-runner is Daniel Barenboim (57), currently conductor at Berlin's opera house Staatsoper Unter den Linden.
However, other names have also been mentioned regularly as potential candidates: Latvian-born Mariss Jansons, currently music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; or a possible outside candidate is Ingo Metzmacher, general music director at the Hamburg State Opera. Some observers argue that the outcome of the ballot will produce a surprise, as was the appointment in 1989 of Claudio Abbado.