For over a year, the Reno Chamber Orchestra has been engaged in a search process to find the third Music Director in its 45-year history. Out of over 150 applicants from around the globe, six finalists were chosen, beginning in March 2019 with Maestro Franz and through into the 2019-2020 season. Who will lead the Orchestra’s next chapter? Subscribe to the new season, give feedback about each candidate in audience surveys, and meet them in the lobby after each concert!
Con moto (adverb MUSIC) | con mo·to | /kän ‘moto: with movement : in a spirited manner — used as a direction in music
Five candidates remain to become the third Music Director of the Reno Chamber Orchestra. With a diverse background and experiences with some of the world’s biggest orchestras, these finalists are sure to bring five extraordinary performances to Northern Nevada. Subscribe today and give your input after each concert – help us select the best person to bring the RCO into its next chapter!
Candidate 2: Donato Cabrera
October 19-20, 2019
WAGNER: Siegfried Idyll
S. ADAMS: Chamber Concerto for Violin
Helen Kim, violin
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 7
Candidate 3: Martin Majkut
November 23-24, 2019
Slovakian-born conductor Martin Majkut makes his Reno debut with a concert spanning continents and centuries. The first half opens with a Baroque Italian gem before moving into one of the best works for chamber orchestra by Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera. Virtuoso soloist Bella Hristova joins the orchestra in the second half for a lovely work from Majkut’s home country, and Beethoven’s glorious, transcendent Violin Concerto.
CIMAROSA: Overture from Il Maestro di Cappella
GINASTERA: Variciones Concertantes
ZELJENKA: Musica Slovaca
BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto
Bella Hristova, violin
Candidate 4: Nick Carthy
January 25 & 26, 2020
Warm up your winter with a program of rhythm and dance, led by finalist Nicholas Carthy. After a light-hearted Schumann opening, soprano Hope Briggs joins the RCO for a stunning Beethoven concert aria, Ah Perfido. The second half contrasts these Germanic masterworks with the sounds and rhythms of the Andes in Frank’s Leyendas, before closing with the excitement of Kodaly’s rousing Dances of Galanta.
SCHUMANN: Introduction, Scherzo & Finale
BEETHOVEN: Ah Perfido
Hope Briggs, soprano
FRANK, GABRIELA LENA: Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout
KODALY: Dances of Galanta
Candidate 5: Kelly Kuo
March 14 & 15, 2020
Maestro Kuo’s program takes audiences on a journey back in time, from a recent classical composition to a traditional Beethoven symphony. The concert opens with contemporary Canadian composer Kevin Lau’s cinematic Artemis, driven by the power of percussion. This sense of energy and motion forms a bridge to the second work from the early 20th Century, as Bion Tsang takes center stage for Shostakovich’s demanding first concerto for cello. The orchestra closes the program with Beethoven’s Second Symphony, which began to push boundaries and expectations in ways which inspired generations of composers to follow.
LAU, KEVIN: Artemis
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concerto No. 1
Bion Tsang, cello
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 2
Candidate 6: Conner Gray Covington
April 4 & 5, 2020
Dynamic young conductor Conner Gray Covington brings the season to a close with a concert juxtaposing new works with traditional classics. Ligeti’s Romanian Concerto sets the tone for the program, followed by a collaboration with acclaimed pianist (and Nevada Chamber Music Festival favorite) Jon Kimura Parker. Death of a Poet, by fellow Curtis graduate TJ Cole, shows the talents of a composer who has built an impressive resume of commissions for a young woman still in her twenties. The season concludes with a perfectly crafted symphony by Josef Haydn.
LIGETI: Romanian Concerto
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4
Jon Kimura Parker, piano
COLE, T.J.: Death of the Poet
HAYDEN: Symphony No. 88 in G major
– Previous Performances –
Candidate 1: Robert Franz
March 30-31, 2019
(2018-19 Season Finale)
BEETHOVEN: Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus
RAVEL: Le Tombeau de Couperin
FRANCK: Symphonic Variations
BRAHMS: Variations on a Theme by Haydn
BEETHOVEN: Choral Fantasy in C minor
Steven Vanhauwaert, piano
