Fort Worth has a new maestro! Conductor Robert Spano takes over orchestra this spring
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra has a new maestro.
Robert Spano begins an initial three-year stint as FWSO music director beginning with the 2022-23 season.
He’ll become music director designate on April 1. He’ll assume the title of music director on Aug. 1, 2022.
FWSO President and CEO Dr. Keith Cerny and FWSO board chair Mercedes T. Bass announced the news at a press conference Tuesday.
Spano, who turns 60 in May, has been a principal guest conductor with FWSO since 2019. He’s replacing Miguel Harth-Bedoya, who finished a 20-year run as FWSO conductor last year. Harth-Bedoya announced his pending departure in 2018.
“I am greatly looking forward to working with Maestro Spano to support his musical vision, and to further develop the FWSO’s reputation on the national and international stage,” Cerny said in a news release.
Spano is the FWSO’s 10th music director going back to 1912.
He comes to Fort Worth after an award-winning, 20-year run as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra musical director that included the creation of the Atlanta School of Composers and six Grammy Award-winning recordings, and tour performances around the country. Spano has also served as the musical director of the Aspen Music Festival and School since 2011.
The Indiana native studied at the Oberlin Conservatory and the Curtis Institute of Music. He previously had stints as the assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and eight years as the director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic.
“I am thrilled to be joining the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and looking forward to getting better acquainted with the vibrant culture of this remarkable city,” Spano said. “Every facet of the orchestra is clearly committed to its success — the management team, the supporters, the audience, and certainly the marvelous musicians who make up the orchestra itself. I look forward with tremendous excitement to our concerts next season, and to creating an inspirational 2022–23 season, which will be our first complete season together.”
Bass has long admired Spano’s work in Aspen
“I am confident that under Maestro Spano’s baton, the FWSO will reach ever higher levels of musicianship,” she said. “This 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. We are extremely lucky to have him as part of the Fort Worth community and FWSO family.”
Spano will conduct six of the orchestra’s 10 symphonic programs per season, oversee the orchestra and music staff, and along with Dr. Cerny, “shape the artistic direction of the orchestra and drive its continued growth; and serve as an ambassador for the orchestra and classical music in the Fort Worth community,” the release said.
While acting as music director designate, Spano will plan future seasons, oversee auditions and conduct two symphonic programs during the 2021–22 season. In March 2019, Spano conducted Mahler’s Fifth Symphony and Strauss’s Four Last Songs at Bass Performance Hall in his FWSO debut.
His first performances as FWSO music director designate are set for March 16–18. He’ll conduct Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, featuring Jeremy Denk, and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.
This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 2:15 PM with the headline "Fort Worth has a new maestro! Conductor Robert Spano takes over orchestra this spring."
