Topic: Musical Chairs - Industry Moves

Punta Gorda Symphony Names New Artistic/Music Director: Richard Stoelzel

Posted on July 25, 2023 by - Who's In

Florida’s Punta Gorda Symphony has appointed Richard Stoelzel as artistic/music director. Stoelzel is trumpet player, conductor, and music teacher, and has founded chamber-scaled music groups. As a trumpeter, he performed with the United States Coast Guard Band, served as principal trumpet for the New Orleans Symphony, and was principal trumpet for the Punta Gorda Symphony for four years. He has appeared with Syracuse Symphoria in Syracuse, New York, and serves as principal trumpet with the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra. Previously, Stoelzel held the position of pops conductor at the HARID Conservatory in Boca Raton and was artistic/music director of the Florida Wind Symphony. Currently, he continues as artistic/music director of the Lakeshore Concert Band in Quebec, a position he has filled since 2016. Stoelzel holds a tenured professorship in trumpet and serves as the brass area coordinator at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montreal. He is the founder, first trumpet, and director of the Avatar Brass, and cofounded the New World Brass. Jennifer Bitner is executive director of the Punta Gorda Symphony.

Sameer Patel Selected as Music Director of La Jolla Symphony and Chorus

Posted on July 24, 2023 by - News Briefs

In Friday’s (7/21) San Diego Union-Tribune, George Varga writes, “It’s shaping up to be a landmark summer for San Diego’s Sameer Patel. His selection as La Jolla Symphony & Chorus’ new music director and conductor comes less than four weeks after he and his wife, Shannon, attended [a] state dinner at the White House … ‘This is absolutely a dream gig—it’s a joy to be part of this wonderful music organization,’ Patel said…. Patel, 40, is the artistic director of the San Diego Youth Symphony, a position he will continue to hold. The former associate conductor of the San Diego Symphony, he regularly conducts orchestras around the country. Patel’s selection to head La Jolla Symphony & Chorus … comes 14 months after his predecessor, Steven Schick, stepped down. Patel’s initial contract is for four years … Patel will work alongside SDSU music professor Arian Khaefi, who has led the chorus of the La Jolla Symphony since early 2021…. A Detroit native, Patel is the son of Indian parents who migrated to the U.S. from Kenya. He earned his master’s degree in music from the University of Michigan.” Patel participated in the 2013 League of American Orchestras’ League Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview.

New Principal Horn at Dallas Symphony

Posted on July 24, 2023 by - Who's In

Daniel Hawkins has been named principal horn at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, beginning on September 1, 2023. Hawkins has held the position of utility horn with the San Francisco Symphony since 2017, serving as associate principal horn for the 2019-20 season. Hawkins previously played with the San Antonio Symphony, Houston Symphony, Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, Meadows Symphony Orchestra. and Southern Arkansas Symphony. Hawkins won first place in the International Horn Competition of America in 2022; was the award winner of the Music Teacher’s National Association Young Artist Competition in 2014; and won the Meadows School of the Arts Undergraduate and General Concerto Competition in 2012 and 2015. A native of Chandler, Texas, Hawkins began playing the horn at age 11, and studied at Stephen F. Austin State University at age 15. Hawkins studied at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University from 2012-2015, receiving a Bachelor of Music, and continued at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where he received a Master of Music degree. Hawkins’s teachers include DSO Second Horn Haley Hoops, former DSO Principal Horn Greg Hustis, and William VerMeulen at Rice University.

New Haven Symphony’s Next Music Director: Perry So

Posted on July 21, 2023 by - Who's In

In Thursday’s (7/20) New Haven Independent (CT), Brian Slattery writes, “The New Haven Symphony Orchestra has appointed conductor Perry So to be its next music director, beginning with the 2024-25 season…. So isn’t a stranger to New Haven. Born and raised in Hong Kong, he attended Yale as an undergraduate, where he studied literature, founded an orchestra, and conducted the undergraduate opera company. The NHSO was the first professional orchestra he heard in the U.S. He also met his wife, Anna Graber, here, and they lived here for 10 years while Graber got her PhD. So counts that his career started in New Haven—a career that has since taken him across the globe … ‘The level of musicianship [at the NHSO] is incredibly high,’ he says … So [succeeds] current music director Alasdair Neale, who So credits with spearheading the orchestra’s … forward-thinking, progressive stance on programming, one that expands the repertoire currently performed by most orchestras to include a diversity of composers from the past and a diversity of living composers … So doesn’t seek to burn the canon down, but to use the programming to interrogate the problems with it, and in the process, hopefully expand it.”

Plano Symphony’s New Assistant Conductor Shira Samuels-Shragg on Gender Equity on the Podium

Posted on July 19, 2023 by - News Briefs

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.

Noam Aviel Named Music Director of New Jersey’s Symphony in C

Posted on July 19, 2023 by - Who's In

Symphony in C, the New Jersey-based professional training orchestra, has appointed Noam Aviel as music director. Aviel appeared as a guest conductor with Symphony in C in January 2023 and will conduct five concerts as part of the orchestra’s 2023-24 season. Aviel was previously the associate conductor of the San Antonio Symphony, where she led the orchestra’s educational, community, and outreach concerts and was named one of the city’s 25 “Renaissance Women.” Aviel has led the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden, and the KwaZulu Natal Philharmonic and Johannesburg Philharmonic orchestras in South Africa as well as San Antonio Philharmonic. In 2022 she debuted at Opera Orlando and Mobile Opera in Alabama. Future engagements include the Dortmund Philharmoniker, Opera Tampa, Mobile Opera, and Opera Orlando. Born in Israel, Aviel studied vocal performance and orchestral conducting at Tel Aviv University, and continued studies in orchestral conducting at Illinois State University.

Music Director Louis Langrée’s Impact on the Cincinnati Symphony and the Mostly Mozart Festival

Posted on July 18, 2023 by - News Briefs

In Friday’s (7/14) New York Times, Joshua Barone writes, “Rehearsals led by the conductor Louis Langrée tend to follow a trajectory. Early on, he speaks poetically and tells stories; during preparations for a May concert with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where he is the music director, he explained Saint-Saëns with references to the Kyrie of a Mass and the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. But then his language becomes technical and specific … The result is often an interpretation rich in specificity and color, to a degree that can impress even seasoned musicians…. His career has been a steady climb of prestige and quality, quietly remarkable but undersung even as he has transformed ensembles: in Cincinnati, where he has been at the podium for a decade, and in New York, where he has been the music director of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra since 2003. His time at both posts, though, is coming to an end…. Langrée is set to depart [Mostly Mozart] this summer at the end of his contract; and his tenure in Cincinnati concludes next season. All this, as he settles into his new job as the leader … of the Opéra Comique in Paris…. The Cincinnati Symphony today, as with the Mostly Mozart orchestra, is largely a product of Langrée’s efforts.”