5 vie to be Phil’s new music director
The Orlando Philharmonic has revealed the five finalists hoping to be the orchestra’s next music director. Orlando audiences will get a chance to watch them conduct at concerts throughout the 2014-15 season, executive director David Schillhammer said.
The candidates are Alondra de la Parra, Leslie B. Dunner, Eric Jacobsen, Steven Jarvi and Dirk Meyer.
“This is likely the most important decision an organization like ours can make,” Schillhammer told the Orlando Sentinel. “We took it very seriously.”
The music director is the orchestra’s top artistic position, conducting and guiding the season’s programming and helping select guest artists. Current music director Christopher Wilkins will leave at the end of this season. In 2012, the Philharmonic said it would not renew his contract after the ’13-14 season, citing only the need for change.
The finalists were announced at a special event for orchestra season subscribers Tuesday at the Plaza Live theater.
De la Parra worked with the Philharmonic’s musicians as a guest conductor in 2011.
“She had a great rapport with the orchestra,” Schillhammer said. “The musicians have been talking about her ever since.”
A frequent guest conductor with orchestras across the country, de la Parra presented 60 concerts during eight years as founder and music director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas in New York City. She is an official cultural ambassador for Mexican tourism.
Dunner, a previous music director of Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet, also has worked with the Phil. When the orchestra again began accompanying Orlando Ballet’s “Nutcracker” performances after a hiatus a few
Coming Thursday
Details on the 2014-15 season of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra years ago, Dunner was asked to conduct.
“We knew we wanted to have the best conductor possible to restart that relationship,” Schillhammer said. “He has the longest professional career of the five finalists.”
Jacobsen, a founding member of popular string quartet Brooklyn Rider, is wellknownfor his artistic collaborations. “Heis a young, exciting, talented musician,” said Schillhammer. Jacobsen, who plays the cello, also is music director of The Knights, an innovative New York-based chamber orchestra.
Jarvi, who has won critical praise from the Wall Street Journal, is the resident conductor of the St. Louis Symphony. “He is a rising star in the industry and really impressed the search committee with his creativity and his dedication to community,” Schillhammer said.
Meyer is well-known to Philharmonic patrons. His many guest-conducting performances in Orlando have included pops concerts, chamber-music concerts and the Phil’s fundraising galas.
“He truly is one of the best musicians with whom the orchestra has had the pleasure of working,” Schillhammer said.
The position attracted nearly 300 applicants from around the world, Schillhammer said. A committee of six musicians and six community-board members led the search process, which involved reviewing sound files and video clips of the applicants’ conducting styles. About 20 applicants were interviewed on the way to narrowing the field to the final five.