Robert Spano, whose 20-year tenure leading the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra ends this spring, will become the next music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
Beginning in the 2022-2023 season Spano will replace Miguel Harth-Bedoya, a Peruvian transplant who has led the Fort Worth orchestra since 2000.
The Atlanta organization announced Spano’s plans to leave the ASO in 2018. Since then the Atlanta Symphony has been conducting a national search for a replacement. None has yet been named.
The Fort Worth Symphony is among the few orchestras nationally that have continued performing in front of audiences during the pandemic. The orchestra has incorporated stringent precautions for these concerts, performing for fewer than 500 people at a time in the 2,000-seat Bass Performance Hall.
That dedication is one of the qualities that attracted Spano to the Texas organization, where he has served as principal guest conductor during the past year.
“Working with this orchestra is so inspiring, they are so committed and passionate,” he said in an interview from Fort Worth, where he planned to make the announcement in person.
When Spano, 59, announced plans to leave the ASO, he suggested he might spend more time composing, and that he would enjoy taking a break from the consuming role of leading an orchestra.
The offer from Fort Worth came as a surprise he said. “My expectation was to have a few years of being principal guest conductor (in Fort Worth) as they continued the search to replace Miguel,” he said.
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“I was looking forward to having at least a couple of years of not having that responsibility. Of being a little more of a free agent.”
Then Fort worth made him an offer he didn’t want to refuse. “This one person in particular who is very important as a supporter of the institution took my arm and started twisting it, and I said you don’t have to twist too hard.”
Fort Worth has a smaller budget and a shorter season than Atlanta’s season, performing about half the number of concerts. Spano said he hopes that reduced workload will liberate some time for composing. He said he spent most of last summer’s canceled season writing music, and some of the new songs he created for mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor will be released on video later this spring.
During the pandemic, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has continued staging virtual concerts, filming their performances and streaming them online.
Spano becomes Fort Worth’s music director designate this spring, and will help plan the 2022-2023 season, making administrative and other “extra-musical” decisions between this April and August 2022, when he assumes the music director’s role.
In a statement, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra president and CEO Keith Cerny said Spano is a fitting successor to Harth-Bedoya and expects Spano to “lead the orchestra to even greater musical acclaim.”
Fort Worth’s board chair Mercedes T. Bass said, in a statement, that the arrival of Spano “is a dream come true for me, and I know the community of Fort Worth will welcome him with open arms. He is gentle and kind, as well as a very interesting and fun person.”
Spano said though he plans to move to Fort Worth, he will maintain a connection with Atlanta. “It’s hard to leave,” he said.
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