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When Scott Terrell was introduced as the new music director of the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra on April 17, he faced one of his immediate challenges: a sea of orange seats.

There could have been several reasons why the 1,500-seat Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall looked about half full on that Friday night. In spring, Lexingtonians’ fancies tend toward Keeneland and other outdoor activities. The Beethoven and Fauré choral program, with the Lexington Singers, had its interesting pieces, but it wasn’t a marquee lineup. Add to that: Not until midweek was the concert promoted as the event where the orchestra’s new music director would be announced.

All that considered, the light turnout was not surprising. The Philharmonic’s crowds have been visibly thinning for a while.

So clearly, part of Terrell’s job will be to reinvigorate the audience of an organization that was a tough ticket to get a decade ago and might have recently suffered from some director-search fatigue.

Evidence suggests that Terrell might be the man for this job.

As I talked to some of his associates in Charleston, S.C., where Terrell is the resident conductor, one of the first kudos they threw him was for initiating programs that attracted new audiences.

Asked what we would be getting in Terrell, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra’s executive director, Janet Newcomb, said first, a top-notch conductor and then second, a conductor with “an ability to program within budget, but still have an edgy side.

“He knows you want to hear the tried and true, but not all the time,” she said.

Newcomb pointed to a CSO series called Backstage Pass that Terrell initiated.

“It was a series we did to try to encourage a younger crowd,” she said. “It was newer music and older music that started at 7 p.m. and lasted an hour or an hour and a half, so people could go out afterward if they wanted.”

Apparently, it has worked.

“It was gratifying to see very few empty seats at the final outing of this year’s Backstage Pass series on Friday,” Charleston City Paper critic Lindsay Koob wrote of the Backstage Pass finale, which included works by Igor Stravinsky, Pablo de Sarasate and Sergey Prokofiev. “And many of those seats were filled by younger-than-usual listeners: strong evidence that this laid-back, informal series is realizing its goal of building a new base for classical music.

“Part of the appeal is that you get verbal introductions to each piece (plus key musical excerpts) that enhance listeners’ appreciation of the music,” Koob wrote. “It’s a good way to demystify what might be seen as an arcane art form by neophytes. Yet you never get the feeling Scott Terrell (the series’ usual conductor and host) is talking down to you.”

Laura Deaton, an interim chief operating officer at the CSO during Terrell’s second season, said ticket sales increased 25 percent for the orchestra’s pops series under Terrell’s direction.

“He brings a different, new energy and a contemporary twist to an orchestra,” she said.

Of course, that is Charleston and this is Lexington. What works in one place does not necessarily work in another. It’s a lesson that’s been learned over and over in the arts and entertainment world.

A resident conductor also can get away with being the guy who puts on the concerts for the hipsters while the music director keeps the lifelong subscribers happy. As music director, Terrell will have to divine the fine line between what traditional audiences want and new audiences want.

Some of the things mentioned in that City Paper review — a conductor talking to the audience, new works — are the very things that drive some traditional concertgoers up the wall.

There also is the little issue of money, and whether Terrell will have the resources to execute his vision for the orchestra.

Terrell knows it’s a big, delicate job. But hours before being introduced to his new audience, the wheels already were turning in his head.

“I think what I’m particularly proud of in Charleston is I’ve built an eclectic audience, which is what I want,” Terrell said. “I want a 20-something sitting next to an empty-nester, sitting next to a longtime season subscriber, and all feeling like this is a great experience.”

For the future of orchestral music in Lexington, one has to hope success will follow Terrell.