“Don’t look now, but Chicago music is about to experience an Austrian invasion,” writes John von Rhein in Wednesday’s (11/7) Chicago Tribune. “In June, six months after the Chicago Opera Theater announced the appointment of Viennese-born Andreas Mitisek as its new general director the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra announced it had chosen conductor David Danzmayr, a native of Mozart’s hometown of Salzburg, Austria, to be the ensemble’s first new music director in more than 25 years. Danzmayr won out over six other finalists on the strength of an all-Mendelssohn concert he led with the IPO last January. Orchestra musicians, symphony subscribers and board members alike came away singing his praises. … [The new] era officially begins this weekend when Danzmayr will direct the first concerts of the IPO’s 35th anniversary season at Lincoln-Way North Performing Arts Center in south suburban Frankfort. He succeeds Carmon DeLeone, who stepped down at the end of the 2010-11 season. … Danzmayr has led orchestras throughout Europe, having spent three seasons as assistant conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, in Glasgow. At the moment, however, his brightest career prospects remain here in the U.S. The same month as his IPO appointment was announced, he was named music director of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio, beginning in 2013-14. Already he is floating the idea of co-commissioning works for his two ensembles.”
Posted November 7, 2012
