Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 16, 1995 TAG: 9510160084
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
From Minneapolis and Detroit and Houston and Long Island and Lincoln, Neb.
They're coming in cufflinks and tailcoats.
They're coming with batons drawn.
They are the five finalists in the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra's search for a new conductor and music director. Beginning tonight, when David Wiley, assistant conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony, takes the podium at the Roanoke Civic Center, they'll each have a crack at conducting Roanoke's orchestra.
The conductors - all males - are the only survivors of the original 200 applicants for the position vacated by Victoria Bond, who resigned in June. The chosen one will be only the second professional conductor of the symphony. Bond became the first in 1988.
The other four finalists are Stephen Stein, conductor-in-residence of the Houston Symphony; Leslie Dunner, resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony; Ming-Feng Hsin, conductor of Long Island's South Shore Symphony Orchestra; and Yong-Yan Hu, conductor of the Lincoln (Neb.) Orchestra.
Each of them will come to Roanoke for a battery of interviews and meetings with community leaders and activities with the orchestra and student musicians. Most will conduct an open rehearsal from 2 to 4:30 p.m. in the Roanoke Civic Center auditorium the Sunday before the orchestra's regular Monday night performance. The candidates also will be available for questions onstage at 6:30 p.m. the night of their performance.
Wiley kicks off the orchestra's 1995-96 season with tonight's 8 o'clock concert, which includes the premiere of ``distant echoes of glimmering daylight." The piece, by Jeffrey Mumford, was commissioned by the Friends of the Roanoke Symphony.
Members of the Roanoke Valley Choral Society will accompany the orchestra tonight.
The symphony plans to announce its new conductor in April 1996.
by CNB