Tuesday afternoon (10/20) on the New York Times blog ArtsBeat, Daniel J. Wakin reports, “The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra said on Tuesday that it had appointed a Canadian conductor with a strong background in opera as its next music director. The orchestra’s new maestro, Jacques Lacombe, will take over in September with a contract to run for three seasons. Mr. Lacombe, 46, is not much known in the United States but has had a long association with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, where he served as an assistant conductor under Charles Dutoit in the late 1990s and as principal guest conductor from 2002 to 2006. … Mr. Lacombe said in a telephone interview that he would emphasize more French and 20th-century Russian music at the New Jersey Symphony than in the past. He also promised to devote time to American composers, especially those associated with Princeton University, like Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt. … He called the New Jerseyans, many of them New York-area musicians who make ends meet by playing in other orchestras, flexible, hard-working, disciplined and energetic. … He said his programming inspiration comes in part from his mentor, Mr. Dutoit. Last season, Mr. Lacombe led the New Jersey Symphony in a program juxtaposing Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’ with works by Debussy and Janacek.” The official release can be found here.
Photo credit: J.F. Bérubé
Posted October 20, 2009
