Guest conductors named for Princeton Symphony

Pulitzer Prize-winner Gunther Schuller and four others selected

By: Michael Redmond
   Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and conductor Gunther Schuller, a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship — the so-called "genius award" — who is recognized worldwide as an important figure in American music, will be one of five guest conductors to lead the Princeton Symphony Orchestra during its five-concert 2007-2008 season, which opens Sept. 30.
   Earlier this month, the orchestra’s board of trustees announced that the orchestra’s longtime music director Mark Laycock, had concluded his tenure, and that the search for a new music director would begin in September. In the meantime, the orchestra’s classical series will be led by guest conductors, who rehearse and perform with the orchestra. The orchestra also presents two pops concerts and children’s programs.
   Several of the guest conductors have indicated their desire to be considered as candidates for the post of music director, the orchestra announced.
   In addition to Mr. Schuller, who has taught at the Manhattan School of Music and Yale University and has headed the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Center as well as the New England Conservatory, the orchestra will be led by:
   • South Korean conductor Shi-Yeon Sung, a young woman who is the winner of multiple European competitions and recently appointed as assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony. She will appear in Princeton Sept. 30.
   • German conductor Jens Georg Bachmann, former assistant conductor of the Munich Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony, currently on the staff of the Metropolitan Opera, who will appear Nov. 4.
   • Swiss conductor Mischa Santora, music director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra and former music director of the New York Youth Symphony, who has guest-conducted such important U.S. orchestras as the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and will appear Jan. 20.
   • Bulgarian conductor Rossen Milanov, associate conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, music director of both the Haddonfield Symphony in New Jersey and the New Symphony Orchestra in his native city of Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, who will appear April 27.
   Mr. Schuller’s appearance on March 16 is also notable because the program includes his own Seven Studies on Themes by Paul Klee, which he has described as a "translation" into musical terms of several of Klee’s paintings. The concert will be presented in conjunction with the Princeton University Art Museum.
   Also noteworthy is the program Mr. Santora will be conducting — the second annual Edward T. Cone Concert — which will feature the world premiere of the late Princeton University composer’s "An Overture for War."
   The Princeton Symphony Orchestra performs in Princeton University’s 800-seat Richardson Auditorium. A nonprofit organization, it is supported and underwritten by its board of trustees, individual donors, major corporate sponsors, major foundations, the New Jersey Cultural Trust and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, both public agencies, subscription sales and box office sales.