Throughout the 2015-16 Tucson Symphony Orchestra season, we are featuring conductors vying to become the next TSO music director.
Who: David Danzmayr, 35, outgoing music director of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra in Chicago and chief conductor of Promusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio. He takes over as music director of the Zagreb Philharmonic in Croatia next year.
Concert: βBest of Both Worlds: Daugherty Debut, Beloved Brahms,β with guest pianist Terrence Wilson, will be performed this weekend. The concert includes the TSO premiere of Michael Daughertyβs βDeus ex Machina,β which Wilson recorded in 2007 with the Nashville Philharmonic. Wilson won three Grammys for the recording in 2011 β awarded on the same weekend that he last performed with the TSO.
Bio at a glance: The Austrian-born conductor studied at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg before moving on to the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. As a student, he led the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, working closely with renowned conductors Claudio Abbado and Pierre Boulez. Other turns at the podium have included serving as assistant conductor for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and being a guest conductor with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Heidelberg.
TSO record: Danzmayr debuted with the orchestra in April 2015, conducting cellist Joshua Roman in Haydnβs Cello Concerto in a concert that also included Brucknerβs Symphony No. 4.
About the program: The highlight will surely be the return of Wilson to perform the Tucson premiere of Daughertyβs βDeus ex Machina,β a piece that pays homage to trains, including a sobering reference to the train that carried the body of Abraham Lincoln from Washington, D.C., to Lincolnβs hometown of Springfield, Illinois. The TSO compares the Brahms Fourth Symphony with Bernsteinβs βWest Side Story,β saying both works were revelatory for their times β 1885 for Brahms, 1957 for Bernstein.
