The Delaware Symphony Orchestra at its May 2023 farewell concert with departing Music Director David Amado. Photo by Joe del Tufo/Moonloop Photography.
In the February 27 Delaware Public Media, Karl Lengel reports, “The Delaware Symphony Orchestra has announced finalists for its new music director. Nearly 150 national and international applicants submitted interest in the position through the fall of 2023. The DSO’s Search Committee, composed of musicians, board members and community leaders, narrowed the field to four finalists: Mélisse Brunet , Filippo Ciabatti, Michelle Di Russo, and Taichi Fukumura. J.C. Barker is the orchestra’s chief executive officer. He says the process was quick, but thorough. ‘We took that list of 147, and we looked at every single one. We brought it down to 17, and we had 17 interviews. Then we actually took that list down …’ Barker says DSO audiences will get a chance to see each of the candidates conduct next season. ‘At this point the committee is in the process of working with each one of them for programming. We’ve given them some guidelines … but, at the same time, we are also working on our programming, because we hope to get our season announced within … the next month.’ The DSO plans to name its new music director sometime in Spring 2025.”
