Santa Rosa Symphony names finalists for new music director

The Santa Rosa Symphony announced the names of its five music director finalists Thursday evening during a private event held at the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall, where the symphony serves as the orchestra in residence.

The five finalists, who were chosen from a wide field of applicants and represent three different nationalities, will be introduced to the audience during the 2017-2018 Santa Rosa Symphony Season as guest conductors and potential successors to outgoing Maestro Bruno Ferrandis.

“This music director search has been an amazing, world-wide endeavor, with 60 well-quality applicants whom we researched and vetted extensively,” said Jim Hinton, chair of the Music Director Search Committee.

Members of the committee, made up of five board members, four orchestra members and Santa Rosa Symphony Executive Director Alan Silow, have spent months pouring over resumes, viewing videos, conducting phone interviews and even flying across the country to view some of the candidates in action.

The finalists will try out during the first five concert sets of the 2017-2018 season, and the selection will be announced by March 2018. Each candidate will spend about eight days in Santa Rosa, conducting all rehearsals and performances and meeting with community leaders, media, board members, staff and musicians.

The new music director’s tenure will begin with the 2018-2019 season. Outgoing Music Director Bruno Ferrandis will conduct the final two concert sets of the 2017-2018 season.

At the symphony’s performances in Weill Hall this weekend, the audience will be able to watch a video showcasing each finalist, screening 90 minutes before each of the three concerts.

Here are the five finalists, in the order in which they are scheduled to conduct:

Francesco Lecce-Chong

- Oct. 7, 8 and 9, 2017

A native of Boulder, Colorado, Francesco Lecce-Chong began conducting at 16 and graduated from the Mannes College of Music in New York with a B.A. with honors in piano and orchestral conducting. He also holds a diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied as a fellow with Otto-Werner Mueller.

He is based in Pittsburgh and currently holds the positions of assistant conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra.

As a guest conductor, he has worked with orchestras around the world, including the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a composer, Lecce-Chong embraces innovative programming and supports arts education. As a conductor, he has earned a reputation for dynamic, forceful performances that have earned him the Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award and The Presser Foundation Music Award.

Mei-Ann Chen?- Nov. 4, 5 and 7, 2017

Born in Taiwan, Mei-Ann Chen is considered one of America’s most dynamic guest conductors, with a reputation as a compelling communicator and educator who has redefined the orchestra experience with her innovation and imagination.

Since 2011, she has served as music director of the 2016 MacArthur Award-winning Chicago Sinfonietta in Chicago, where she is based. She also serves as artistic director and conductor of the 2016 National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Summer Orchestra Festival.

A sought-after guest conductor around the world, she was named one of Musical America’s 2015 Top 30 Influencers and won the 2012 Helen M. Thompson Award from the League of American Orchestras. Chen served as guest conductor of the Santa Rosa Symphony in January 2016, where she made a positive impression on audience members and musicians.

Chen has served as assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony and Baltimore Symphony under the aegis of the League of American Orchestras, and with the Oregon Symphony.

Andrew Grams?- Dec. 2, 3 and 7, 2017

A native of Severn, Maryland, Grams began playing violin at 8 in the public school system. He attended the Baltimore School for the Arts and won a position in the violin section of the New York City Ballet while enrolled at the Juilliard School in New York.

He pursued conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Otto-Werner Mueller and from 2004-2007 served as assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra, working under the guidance of Franz Welser-Most.

Grams is currently music director of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra in Illinois, where he has built a reputation for long-term orchestra-building and community outreach. His tenure there was recently extended through 2022. He lives outside Cleveland.

Known for his combination of intensity, enthusiasm and technical clarity, Grams has led orchestras throughout the U.S. and the world, from the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony to the Orchestre National de France and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

Graeme Jenkins

- Jan. 13, 14 and 15, 2018

English conductor Graeme Jenkins is an opera, choral and orchestral conductor who is known for the breadth of his repertoire and interpretations of Mozart and Richard Strauss, as well as for conducting major choral works.

After studying at the Royal College of Music in London, he was appointed music director of the Glyndebourne Touring Opera from 1986 to 1991, where he assisted Bernard Haitink and Sir Simon Rattle. He also served as music director of the Dallas Opera from 1994 to 2013. He was principal guest conductor of the Koln Opera from 1997 to 2002.

Jenkins has conducted for major UK orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as for European orchestras such as the Lyon Symphony. Last year, he conducted two productions at the Vienna State Opera, marking his 184th opera production of 117 different titles worldwide. He lives in Dorset County in southern England.

In the U.S., he has worked with the symphony orchestras of Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, Minnesota, Utah and San Antonio. He also has collaborated with the University of North Texas and Southern Methodist University in Texas on a 10-year project of Handel oratorios.

Michael Christie?- Feb. 10, 11 and 12, 2018

A graduate of Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in Ohio with a B.A. in trumpet performance, Michael Christie currently lives in Minneapolis with his wife Alexis, a physician, and their two children.

Equally at home in the symphonic and opera worlds, Christie first came to international attention in 1995, when he was awarded a special prize for “Outstanding Potential” at the First International Sibelius Conductors’ Competition in Helsinki, Finland. Following that competition, he was invited to become an apprentice conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin State Opera.

Since 2012-2013, he has served as music director of the Minnesota Opera, where he has shown a deep commitment to bringing new works to life, such as the 2011 premiere of Kevin Puts’ Pulitzer-Prize winning “Silent Night.” In August 2012, he was named by Opera News as one of 25 people believed to “break out and become major forces in the field in the coming decade.”

Christie is known as a thoughtfully innovative conductor who is focused on making the audience experience entertaining and enlightening. According to The New York Times, “Michael Christie is a music director open to adventure and challenge.”

Christie served as guest conductor of the Santa Rosa Symphony in January 2015, leading a performance of fiddler Mark O’Connor’s own “Fiddle Concerto.” A licensed pilot for more than 15 years, he often flies his Mooney Airplane Company single-engine aircraft to conducting engagements across the U.S.

Staff writer Diane Peterson can be reached at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @dianepete56.