Paul Haas.
Paul Haas has been appointed music director of the Jackson Symphony in Tennessee. Haas is currently concluding a 15-year tenure as music director of the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas (SoNA), where he launched an in-school mentorship initiative and an El Sistema-inspired pilot program for at-risk youth. He recently completed a tenure with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra in Ontario. Haas has conducted and composed for venues including New York’s Park Avenue Armory and San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. He is the founder of Sympho, a collective known for immersive musical performances in unconventional spaces, and he has also worked in alternative and pops programming, creating original productions that blend orchestral music with visual art, film, and theater. He was previously music director for the New York Youth Symphony and a conductor of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute’s Young Artists Orchestra. A graduate of Yale University and the Juilliard School, Haas has held conducting positions with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra, and served as a guest conductor for orchestras including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Indianapolis Symphony, and Omaha Symphony. He has received awards from ASCAP and the League of American Orchestras for innovative and educational programming.
