Editor’s note: This article is brought to you by Ashland Symphony Orchestra highlighting the candidates of the Ashland Symphony Orchestra music director, conductor search.
After two years of searching and a long delay due to the pandemic, the Ashland Symphony Orchestra music director/conductor search is nearing its end as the final five candidates audition to determine who will become the next maestro.
Darwin Aquino was the first candidate to showcase his composition and leadership skills in his very first concert with the orchestra on Sept. 18.
Aquino, a resident of St. Louis, Missouri, is the music director of the Gateway Festival Orchestra. Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, he learned to appreciate the sound of music and picked up the violin at age 4. He became the concertmaster of the Latino Youth Orchestra in the Dominican Republic where he then ended up becoming the conductor at the age of 16.
“I never planned to be a conductor,” Aquino said. “I was composing, I was playing the violin, but life has thrown me more and more into conducting, which I’m very happy about because I really love it.”
Aquino applied because of the Ashland Symphony Orchestra’s incredible reputation. Ashland is the smallest community in the U.S. to have a professional orchestra, and Aquino found himself wanting to be part of that culture.
Due to the pandemic, the process of selecting a new conductor to replace Arie Lipsky—who retired in 2019 after more than 23 years as music director—has unfortunately been drawn out.
Throughout these past two years, Aquino, like many others, faced challenges such as welcoming his newborn child into the world in 2020 and being unable to see extended family in person. However, he remained as inspired as ever. For his concert, he composed a piece inspired by COVID-19, titling it “Lunga Pandemia,” which, in Spanish, means “long pandemic”, and dedicated it to the Ashland Symphony Orchestra.
With his music, Aquino said that he feels he will represent Latin culture and give the Ashland community diverse programming if chosen to become the music director. In his concert, he included a new piece, a classical piece and a piece from Spain.
“The world is changing, and we need to change with the world,” Aquino said. “We cannot continue playing the same music all the time. So I believe that variety and inclusion are very important nowadays to keep attracting younger audiences. I believe that is a target that we shouldn’t forget because they are the ones that are going to keep supporting classical music in the future and symphonic institutions.”
Aquino said that he already felt a connection with the Ashland Symphony Orchestra as they practiced and performed together.
“The chemistry that I felt was really impressive, and we connected extremely well,” he said.
“The communication between the musicians and the conductor in rehearsals is extremely important. They were coming to me to ask questions or just to say hi or just to give a comment about the rehearsal or the concert, so it felt very familiar… That, of course, kept increasing in the entire process until the concert.”
The search officially began in fall 2019 after the members of the search committee were chosen earlier that summer. The final five candidates were chosen in March 2020, however, the audition process did not resume until earlier this year.
Over 128 candidates from around the world applied, which was carefully narrowed down by the search committee, chaired by Jan Archer.
“It’s quite a variety, and it’s going to be a fun year to see the variety of candidates in person and to hear their programming choices,” Archer said.
After each performance, the candidate will be evaluated by the audience, the orchestra and the search committee. The search committee will then conduct a follow-up interview with the candidate. Once all five candidates give their performances, the committee will then have numerous discussions about who will be the best fit to lead the orchestra.
Archer attended all of Aquino’s rehearsals with the orchestra as well as his concert. And after watching him perform as the very first candidate out of the five she’ll see until April 2022, she feels that she and the committee have a huge challenge ahead of them with picking the next conductor.
Four candidates still have performances this year and Aquino wishes the Ashland Symphony Orchestra well as they search for the right music director.
“Good luck to the Ashland Symphony Orchestra, because they still have four more concerts, and it’s going to be a busy year for them,” Aquino said. “It’s a process that takes a lot of energy also from the institution because you have so many things to take care of. So good luck to everyone there and I’m looking forward to coming back soon, hopefully.”
The new conductor will be announced in June 2022. To find out more about Aquino, visit his website. And for more information on the final five contestants, visit https://www.ashlandsymphony.org.
