SPRINGFIELD – The Springfield Symphony Orchestra has launched the search for its next musical director, a key role meant to provide “the region’s cultural heartbeat.”
The music director will serve as the orchestra’s principal conductor and conduct a number of concerts each season, while also identifying and engaging guest conductors, soloists and composers for performances, according to a news release Monday.
“The next music director of the SSO will not only shape our stage, but they will also shape our region’s cultural heartbeat,” said orchestra president and CEO Heather Caisse-Roberts in a statement. “This is a monumental next step in the SSO’s history and represents a moment of possibility, momentum, and transformation, and we are ready.”
The music director will be asked to provide the SSO’s artistic vision, honoring traditional symphonic programming while embracing innovation by developing diverse and compelling performances in collaboration, according to the news release.
Maestro Kevin Rhodes served as the orchestra’s music director for 20 years, from 2001 to 2021. Before that, Mark Russell Smith served as music director from 1995 to 2000.
A job description and application are posted at SpringfieldSymphony.org. Applications will be accepted through Jan. 5, the symphony said, then a shortlist of candidates will be identified. Finalists will conduct one concert during the SSO’s 2026-27 season, with the next music director to be named in 2027.
The orchestra went two years without live performances under COVID restrictions and a long labor dispute with its musicians.
In 2023, the orchestra and Local 171 of the American Federation of Musicians reached a two-year collective bargaining agreement and signed a new agreement earlier this year.
The symphony is Western Massachusetts’ sole professional orchestra and the largest in Massachusetts outside of Boston, with over 70 contracted musicians.
The symphony’s annual Holiday Pops concert will be offered at 4 p.m. Dec. 13 at Springfield Symphony Hall. William Waldrop will return as guest conductor to lead the orchestra in Latin-inspired versions of classics, such as “Caribbean Sleigh Ride” and “Jingle Bells.”
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