“The Illinois Symphony Orchestra has narrowed its choices for new music director down to a finely tuned quartet,” writes Dan Craft on Tuesday (2/2) in The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Ill.). Music Director Alastair Willis will conclude his fourth season with the orchestra in June 2016, and each of four candidates to succeed him will lead two concert pairs during the 2016-17 season. Scheduled for February 3-4 and March 31-April 1 is Aram Demirjian, associate conductor of the Kansas City Symphony. On the podium October 14-15 and April 21-22 will be Vladimir Kulenovic, music director of the Lake Forest (Ill.) Symphony and a 2013 participant in the League of American Orchestras’ Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview. Ken Lam, who conducts December 16-17 and February 24-25, is music director of the Charleston (S.C.) Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra, and was a 2009 participant in the National Conductor Preview. Andrew Sewell, music director of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, former music director of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, and “a finalist during the ISO’s last music director search in 2011,” will conduct the orchestra March 31 and April 1 and return for its May 5-6 concerts.
Posted February 5, 2016
