“The last time Alexander Mickelthwate stepped onto the podium for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic 15 months ago, he was one of six finalists for the orchestra’s music director position,” writes Brandy McDonnell in Sunday’s (1/7) Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK). “When he takes up the baton Saturday it will be in his concert debut as the OKC symphony’s music director designate…. Saturday’s concert will be the first of three Mickelthwate is conducting during the transitional 2017-18 season, designed to welcome the newcomer while bidding farewell to [founding music director and conductor Joel] Levine.” The program will include music by Ginastera, Haydn, and Sibelius. “A native German, Mickelthwate … and his family—his wife, Abigail, and their sons Jack, 14, and Jacob, 9—are putting down new roots in Oklahoma City…. The conductor is toggling back and forth between two cities [during] his farewell season with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in Canada, where he has been the music director for 12 years…. He and his wife have bought a house in Oklahoma City, and he is working on programming for the 2018-19 OKC Philharmonic season.” Says Mickelthwate, “I love it this way. It’s just not so abrupt. It’s like a flow.”
Posted January 9, 2018
Passing the baton: Joel Levine, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic’s founding music director (left), and Alexander Mickelthwate, music director designate
