“The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has hired five musicians, filling vacant positions that remained open longer than anticipated due to COVID-19,” writes Jeremy Reynolds in Tuesday’s (5/17) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Three are full-time positions and two are two-year fellowships for young Black musicians to help launch their professional careers. Nicholas Myers will assume the role of principal bass in August. He has been with the Detroit Symphony since 2018. Dylan Naroff, formerly a member of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in Texas, will join the first violin section at the PSO in August. Yingchen Zhang will join the orchestra as a second violinist in September. She is currently pursuing her doctorate at Boston University. The other two musicians are cellist Danielle Wilson and trombonist Cooper Cromwell-Whitley. Their two-year appointments include audition support and professional opportunities. Annual pay is equivalent to minimum orchestra weekly scale for 21 work weeks (about $43,000). The Paul J. Ross Fellowship program is named for the first Black musician to receive tenure in the orchestra in 1965. The fellowship’s goal is to increase ethnic diversity…. Other orchestras around the country with such programs include the Memphis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.”
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