In the Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville) on Wednesday (5/28), Charlie Patton reports on the announcement of Courtney Lewis’s appointment as music director of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra at a press conference on Wednesday, “the day before Lewis’s 30th birthday.” The orchestra’s eighth music director, he succeeds Fabio Mechetti, whose has held the post since 1999. Lewis will serve as music director designate during the 2014-15 season, when he will conduct the orchestra’s first Masterworks concerts on September 26 and 27. His first full season as music director will be 2015-16. “He will continue as music director of the Discovery Ensemble, an acclaimed chamber orchestra that does educational outreach in Boston, which he cofounded in 2008.… Lewis will also spend the next two years as an assistant conductor with the New York Philharmonic [but] is ending his association with the Minnesota Orchestra, for which he has been an associate conductor since 2011.” A native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, Lewis “said one of his major goals as music director and principal conductor is expanding ‘the diversity of the music’ the orchestra plays.…The goal is to pair unfamiliar pieces with beloved pieces ‘in a way that isn’t frightening to audiences,’ Lewis said.”
Posted May 29, 2014
