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Season of the Search
Symphony showdown: 'American Idol'-like competition will determine new music director . It's not exactly "American Idol," but the way in which the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra is selecting a replacement for its recently retired maestro is pretty close.
Six finalists from nearly 250 hopefuls will compete for the highly coveted position by each conducting a concert this season, titled the "Season of the Search." The season debuts Sept. 20 at George Mason University's Center for the Arts.
"This process is going to produce a music director who not only will continue the ongoing improvement of the FSO but also become the new face of the symphony in the community,” FSO Executive Director Elizabeth Murphy told The Times.
The symphony has had only two music directors in its 52-year history. Maestro Bill Hudson retired last season after leading the orchestra for the last 36 years.
"Harvey Krasney started it all off in 1957," said Cathy Smith, the symphony's director of marketing. "Then Bill Hudson took over in 1971, and he took the symphony to the next level, from being a talented bunch of amateurs to becoming a fully professional orchestra."
The competition is fierce to become only the third music director in the symphony's 52-year history.
Applications came in from all over the world when the position was announced at the end of last season.
"The orchestral music world is very small," Smith said. "We guessed that we would get 250 applications and we got exactly 249. I think the 250th one got lost in the mail," she said jokingly.
From the 249, six rose to the top, the same number of concerts set for this season.
"It was very tough, but we whittled it down to the number of performances for this season," Smith said.
The finalists include Paul Haas, a Yale University graduate, music director of the New York Youth Symphony; Brazilian-born Marcello Lehninger, who is music adviser of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas; Laura Jackson, assistant music director for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Daniel Meyer, music director of the Asheville, S.C., Symphony; Hungarian-born Gregory Vajda, who has performed with the Charlotte, Honolulu, Louisville, Milwaukee, Montreal, Omaha and Winnipeg symphonies; and Christopher Zimmerman, another Yale graduate, appointed music director of the Symphony of Southeast Texas in 2001.
“These candidates represent some of the most gifted and acclaimed young talent in the conducting world today," Murphy said.
"I believe that when a community, an orchestra and its leader are synchronized, this adventure can come to life on the stage," candidate Meyer said. “I am anxious to find this in Fairfax.”
Lehninger said, "Fairfax County has one of the best public educational systems in this country. My dream is to link education and music as much as I can.”
Beginning with the season opener, each finalist will conduct his or her own concert, and audience members will be asked to fill out a brief three-question survey about the conductor's performance.
"This audience participation will factor into the final decision after our final performance on May 2, 2009," Smith said.
Haas is up first. "I’m looking for an orchestra bent on success – one willing to experiment with new ideas, and one that has an extraordinary level of support from the community,” he said. “From all I’ve seen and heard, I believe the FSO fits that description, and I’m ready to stake my future on that.”
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