In Wednesday’s (1/19) Hartford Courant (Connecticut), Jeffrey Johnson writes, “Carolyn Kuan is the Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s new music director, the 10th in the HSO’s 68-year history, and the first woman to hold that position. The announcement came Tuesday at a 4 p.m. board meeting conducted by teleconference because of the weather. Kuan will take over leadership of the HSO from outgoing music director Edward Cumming effective in September. Her selection ends a two-year search process that yielded several strong contenders and a significant public following. … Kuan, 33, a native of Taiwan, came to the United States by herself when she was 14 to attend high school at Northfield Mount Hermon in Western Massachusetts. … She graduated cum laude from Smith College with degrees in music and economics, earned a master’s degree in music from the University of Illinois and a conducting performance diploma from Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She has been associate conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, artist-in-residence at the New York City Ballet and assistant conductor for the Baltimore Opera Company.” Kuan was participant in the League of American Orchestras’ 2009 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview.
Posted January 19, 2011
