Conductor Joseph Young.
In Wednesday’s (11/20) San Francisco Chronicle, Zara Irshad writes, “Joseph Young is stepping down from his role as music director of Berkeley Symphony at the end of the 2024-25 season, after six years on the job. Young is only the orchestra’s fourth music director in its half-century history…. He initially made his way to the Symphony to step in for an ill colleague…. Young impressed the orchestra and its leaders so much with the single concert program that he left as a leading candidate for its next music director…. Young expanded the orchestra’s musical offerings and saw it through its 50th anniversary celebration … During his tenure, the orchestra’s attendance increased by more than 40%. Young was also part of the judging panel for the Emerging Black Composers Project, which was launched in 2020 by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Symphony to foster new musical works by developing Black composers…. The Berkeley Symphony Board of Directors is working on creating a search committee to find Young’s successor.” Young was a League of American Orchestras Conducting Fellow, and in 2011 he participated in the League of American Orchestras’ Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview.
