“After a two-year international search, the Santa Rosa Symphony has chosen the fifth music director of its 90-year history: 30-year-old Francesco Lecce-Chong, a trained conductor and pianist of Italian-Chinese descent, to succeed Bruno Ferrandis,” writes Diane Peterson in Tuesday’s (3/27) Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, CA). “Lecce-Chong was born in San Francisco and raised in Boulder, Colorado. He was the first to audition with the symphony during the 2017-2018 season … The 10-member Music Director Search Committee … unanimously recommended him to the Santa Rosa Symphony’s 38-member board of directors…. The board’s vote was also unanimous…. Lecce-Chong’s three-year contract with the Santa Rosa Symphony begins July 1…. In April, he was chosen as the music director of the Eugene Symphony in Eugene, Oregon.” He will hold both positions simultaneously, and will complete his associate conductor post at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra this summer. “Lecce-Chong studied composing as an undergraduate at New York’s Mannes School of Music and has a strong interest in new music…. This season in Eugene, the multifaceted conductor has led early music works from the harpsichord twice, including a sold-out concert last month titled ‘The Four Seasons of the McKenzie River,’ [a] multimedia, collaborative project.”
Posted March 28, 2018
Francesco Lecce-Chong photo by Anastasia Chernyavsky
