George Hanson named song festival director

Jack Forsythe had anticipated it would take five years before the Tucson Desert Song Festival needed an executive director.

But three festivals in and that moment has arrived.

On Monday, the festival’s Board of Directors named George Hanson as the festival’s first-ever director beginning July 1 — the day after Hanson’s contract with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra wraps up. Hanson last month performed his final concert as the TSO’s music director, a position he held for 19 years.

“It’s a big step for us. It’s a measure of the fact that artistically this has grown a lot faster than we thought it would,” said Forsythe, the festival’s founder and board president.

The board gave Hanson a three-year contract. No details were disclosed.

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Hanson, who has been involved with the festival since it began three years ago, will be responsible for running the festival. He also will have input at the artistic end, including developing continuity with participating organizations and some thematic programming.

The festival, held for three weekends beginning in late January, provides funding to bring in up-and-coming singers who have growing reputations on world stages. Participating groups include the TSO, Tucson Guitar Society, Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music and True Concord Voices and Orchestra — formerly Tucson Chamber Artists.

“When Tucson’s performers share the stage with vocalists from New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the operas of San Francisco, Chicago and Munich, the artistic impact is magnified tenfold,” said Hanson, whose early career included leading Germany’s Wuppertal Opera and Orchestra for six seasons and working extensively with vocalists.

Under Hanson’s baton, the TSO has mounted some of the festival’s biggest events, including Verdi’s Requiem at the inaugural festival in 2013 and Berlioz’s “The Damnation of Faust” in 2014. This year, the TSO presented Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” and the chamber version of Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde,” a work it will remount in the full orchestral version for the 2016 festival next January.

Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com or 573-4642. On Twitter @Starburch