“It took the Auburn Symphony Orchestra 2½ years to find and land their new music director, but it was time well spent, they say,” reads an unsigned Thursday (2/22) article in the Auburn Reporter (Kent, WA). “Wesley Schulz takes up his baton in early 2018,” following the 2015 retirement of Stewart Kershaw, who founded the orchestra in 1997. “Schulz is the associate conductor of the North Carolina Symphony … [with] programs that cross all genres, among them classics, pops, education, young people’s concerts and holiday concerts. [He was] the 2014-2015 Seattle Symphony Orchestra’s Conducting Fellow… Schulz is likewise a frequent guest of the Austin Symphony Orchestra, for which he develops and conducts family and education concerts that reach more than 15,000 youth every year. Schulz previously served as music director and conductor of the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra and the Seattle Festival Orchestra, and he was director of orchestras at the University of Puget Sound…. ‘People ask us, “Why does it take so long?” ’ ASO board member Nancy Colson said of the search. ‘We’ve used a very intentional and deliberate process.’ ”
Posted February 23, 2018
