David Hayes, newly named music director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.
In Wednesday’s (9/25) Philadelphia Inquirer, Peter Dobrin writes, “Last fall, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia’s music director Dirk Brossé, who is Belgian, ran into travel visa problems and couldn’t make it to Philadelphia for the first concerts of the season. So the orchestra called David Hayes, who, on less than 48 hours’ notice, came down from New York and conducted the program…. Soon after, he heard from the orchestra’s administration again. ‘They said, “…Would you at all be open to some larger role possibly?” ’ That larger role starts now. Brossé has stepped down after 14 seasons as leader of the Kimmel Center’s smaller resident orchestra, and Hayes will conduct his first concerts as music director Oct. 4 and 6 … Hayes, 61, is based in New York, where he is music director of the New York Choral Society and director of orchestral and conducting studies at the Mannes School of Music…. Hayes graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music … Hayes was a staff conductor and assistant to Wolfgang Sawallisch at the Philadelphia Orchestra and, for 23 years, music director of the Philadelphia Singers, the highly regarded professional chorus that dissolved in 2015. His history with the Chamber Orchestra also runs deep, having conducted the group often over the years.”
