In Monday’s (7/17) NBCDFW (Texas), Noelle Walker reports, “When Shira Samuels-Shragg steps onto the conductor’s podium, she is fulfilling a childhood dream. ‘I loved music, and I knew I wanted to do something with that,’ Samuels-Shragg said. ‘And I thought that looks really fun to be the person at the front of the orchestra, but you don’t see a lot of women up there.’ Samuels-Shragg is Plano Symphony Orchestra’s first assistant conductor. She graduated in 2022 with a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from The Julliard School. ‘I felt very lucky to be able to go straight from graduate school into a full-time job with a professional symphony,’ Samuels-Shragg said. ‘I think what it does in terms of any field where we’re still searching for gender equity, is that little girls in the audience can see me come out on the stage and think, “Oh, maybe I want to do that!” ’ On Monday, Samuels-Shragg was leading the PSO’s first summer camp for students. ‘It’s been really rewarding,’ she said…. Samuels-Shragg says representation matters, from the notes on the page to the person on the podium.” Héctor Guzmán is the Plano Symphony’s music director.
