Naming of the new Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra conductor: Orchestra members have been served a feast of new candidates since October 2007, but they must feel almost sated by now.
Three more conductors, and Lexington has a choice to make. And in this age of Google and YouTube, everybody can bone up on the choices.
Start with Jan. 23's conductor, Morihiko Nakahara, who is in his first season as director of the South Carolina Philharmonic in Columbia. Search the Web for him, and find humor, such as his cracking up the lead cellist with corrective quips like, “Nice, but not so caffeinated,” and love for thematic programs, as in “What the World Needs Is Poetry.”
Feb. 13's Alastair Willis speaks Russian, British and Massachusetts (being born in the last and raised in the other two) and has recorded the Christmas classic Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors with the Nashville Symphony. A radio interview in Birmingham, Ala., will give you word on Willis at www.wbhm.org.
These folks, though, need to catch up to Darryl One (last January's conductor) and March 27's Mei-Ann Chen, with their multiple YouTube videos. Chen was victim of a practical joke when she won a conducting competition in Denmark. In front of all the other competitors and a sell-out audience, she was asked to conduct the orchestra in a favorite Danish work. The trick was, she had never seen it before. Check out her quick-strike reactions on YouTube (search “Mei-Ann Chen in Copenhagen”).
While you're surfing, don't forget the rest who have already appeared: Kayoko Dan, Alexander Platt, Daniel Meyer, Alfred Savia, Scott Terrell and Jeffrey Pollock. Then tell the search committee what you think.
What is most important in judging a candidate? It's finding a person who thinks that the star of the operation is not the conductor, but the orchestra. (In my estimation, three of the candidates have flunked that test.)
The ideal conductor also has personal magnetism. Two people have shown that, and I anticipate that at least one of the next three has it, too.
Ten aspiring conductors, but one podium.
One of the above will look at the klieg lights and wave them away with one hand (“No, I'm a team player”), while beckoning them with the other (“Turn 'em on bright, I'm ready to go”).
(Concerts mentioned here begin at 8 p.m. at the Singletary Center for the Arts, 405 Rose St. $25-$47. (859) 233-4226. www.lexphil.org.)
