“Mélisse Brunet thought she was just picking up a last-minute guest conducting gig in May, when she came to Lexington to lead the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra’s season finale concert,” writes Rich Copley in Monday’s (7/11) Lexington Herald Leader (KY). “Monday, the Lexington Philharmonic announced that she will be the Philharmonic’s new music director, conducting her first concert in that role Oct. 22. Brunet will be the fifth music director in the Philharmonic’s 61-year history and the first woman in that role. She succeeds Scott Terrell, who led the orchestra from 2009 to 2019…. Brunet was suggested as a guest conductor by a musician in the Philharmonic who also plays with the West Virginia Symphony, which Brunet frequently guest conducts…. ‘The [Lexington] musicians were really eager to play great music … and it was great teamwork at all times,’ she said…. Brunet [moved] from her native France, where she was a protegee of … Pierre Boulez and earned six diplomas from the Paris Conservatory, to … study at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2010…. She is the Director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Iowa School of Music…. Brunet … will be in her final year leading the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic in the 2022-23 season.” Brunet participated in the League of American Orchestras’ 2018 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview.
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