Tucson conductor Charles Bontrager is winding down his nearly five-year tenure at the podium for the volunteer Civic Orchestra of Tucson.
Next weekend he will conduct one of his final two concerts before he turns the baton over to his newly appointed successor Keun Oh.
Oh will assume the position in August.
The orchestra will actually introduce Oh, who earned his doctoral degree in conducting from the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music, at the orchestra’s performances March 19 and 20.
Oh, a native of Korea who earned his master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University, will lead the orchestra in Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp on a program anchored by Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5.
Bontrager, who recently retired from the UA as its assistant director of orchestra activities, has led the community orchestra for 4½ years. He announced earlier this season that this would be his last.
Oh’s appointment, announced last week, followed a year-long search. He becomes only the fourth music director in the orchestra’s 46-year history. The late Herschel Kreloff led the orchestra from 1979 to 2017, when Bontrager took over.
Oh, who placed in the top 10 at the Antal Doráti International Conducting Competition in Budapest, Hungary, comes to the Civic Orchestra with a growing resume that includes serving as the assistant conductor at Carnegie Mellon and assisting Thomas Cockrell, head of UA’s orchestra activities. Oh also was a finalist at the 53rd Besançon International Conducting Competition in France.
The orchestra will perform at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 19, at the Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene, 500 W. Calle Concordia; and at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, March 20, at Crowder Hall on the UA campus, 1017 N. Olive Road. Admission is free.
Bontrager’s final concerts with Civic Orchestra of Tucson will be April 30 at Valley Presbyterian Church in Green Valley and May 1 at the DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center in Reid Park. Details: cotmusic.org
