“Jean-Marie Zeitouni, who will conduct the Columbus Symphony this weekend, was the orchestra’s music director from 2010 to 2014,” writes Peter Tonguette in Thursday’s (4/23) Columbus Dispatch (Ohio). “Almost a year has passed since he last led the symphony…. ‘I can’t be sure, but what I’m kind of hoping and expecting is that it will be a little bit like riding the bicycle,’ Zeitouni said.” The concerts, featuring Nielsen’s Symphony No. 5, Sibelius’s Finlandia, and Fauré’s Requiem, with the Columbus Symphony Chorus, “were planned as Zeitouni’s stint was drawing to a close. (In September, Rossen Milanov was named music director-designate.) … The 40-year-old resident of Montreal … currently has leadership positions with I Musici de Montreal and the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder…. ‘I’m very excited to go back because I consider all these people my friends….’ Zeitouni, who hopes to have more return engagements with the symphony, relishes the chance to focus on making music with his former colleagues. ‘It’s nice to be the boss,’ he said, ‘but, at the same time, it’s good to come without the responsibility of being the boss.’ ”
Posted April 24, 2015
