Jonathon Heyward, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
In Sunday’s (9/24) Baltimore Sun, Mary Carole McCauley writes, “Jonathon Heyward took over as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s 13th music director this weekend after performing three concerts in two counties over three days for roughly 5,000 people, including Maryland’s governor and first lady. At 31, he is the youngest music director among those leading the two dozen U.S. orchestras with the biggest budgets. He is the only American. And he is the only conductor in that group who is Black. ‘History is being made right here, right now, here in Baltimore,’ Mark C. Hanson, CEO of the BSO, told the crowd Saturday. The BSO hosted a two-day gala to celebrate the event at both of the symphony’s performing homes: The Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda on Friday and the Meyerhoff in Baltimore on Saturday. The weekend culminated Sunday in a free community concert … ‘It takes a village—it takes a community for a musical and artistic movement to begin,’ Heyward told the audience on Saturday…. Attendees included former U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski and her longtime legislative partner, U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, and the heads of both legislative bodies in the General Assembly” as well as Governor Wes Moore.
