Copious Notes

The Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra will announce its choice for its new music director at Friday night’s concert, bringing to a close a two-year search for the successor to George Zack.

George Zack, whose successor will be named Friday. Photo by Matt Goins.

“This is the way we always wanted to make the announcement, and it looks like we’re on track to do it,” said Larry C. Deener, President of the Lexington Philharmonic Society, Inc.

Zack announced his retirement in December 2006, setting in motion a two-season search that saw 10 candidates conduct the Philharmonic between October 2007 and last month. Two candidates withdrew from the race after visiting — February auditioner Alastair Willis and March candidate Mei-Ann Chen.

That leaves eight candidates in contention for the spot:

• Kayoko Dan, assistant conductor of the Phoenix Symphony
• Alexander Platt, music director of the Waukesha Symphony in Wisconsin, resident conductor of the Chicago Opera Theatre and several other posts
• Darryl One, music director of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra in Texas
• Daniel Meyer, music director of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra in North Carolina, resident conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and several other posts
• Alfred Savia, music director of the Evansville Symphony Orchestra in Indiana
• Scott Terrell, resident conductor of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina
• Jeffrey Pollock, last post was assistant conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in Texas
• Morihiko Nakahara, music director of the South Carolina Philharmonic

Deener said the announcement will come just before intermission of Friday’s concert, which will feature the Lexington Singers and Lexington Philharmonic performing works by Gabriel Faure and Ludwig Van Beethoven. Lexington Singers music director Jefferson Johnson and University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra director John Nardolillo will co-conduct the concert.

At the concert, Deener said plans are to have brochures available with the programs for next season’s Masterclassics series, which will be the new conductor’s first season with the Philharmonic.

Click the play button for our Lexington Singers 50th season slideshow, including current and archival photos, the sounds of the Singers in rehearsal, and reflections from the three directors: Phyllis Jenness (1959-75), James Ross Beane (1975-97) and Jefferson Johnson (1997-present). Click here to see a slightly larger version of the show.

Sometimes there’s good karma in the calendar. With George Zack retiring from the podium of the Lexington Philharmonic in ­September and the search for his ­successor still in progress, there was a perfect ­opening for Lexington Singers music ­director ­Jefferson Johnson to take the baton for this year’s ­performance of George Frideric ­Handel’s Messiah.

And the timing is great for the Singers to have its man on the podium: This is the 170-member group’s 50th season.

“It is totally coincidental,” Johnson says, “but it’s pretty neat.”

This will be Johnson’s first time ­conducting a performance of Handel’s ­perennial. Usually, he prepares the chorus for the concert and then, as most choral conductors do, hands the group off to the orchestra conductor for the show.

Until this year, Johnson, 52, has spent the concert in the same place: the back row of the Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall, where he is showered with the crystal-clear voices of his chorus.

The feeling is not much different from when he moved to Lexington as ­director of choirs at the University of Kentucky, and he would go hear the Singers under James Ross Beane.

“I was just in awe of how close to perfection they were singing,” Johnson says. “Like any choral conductor, I would listen for mistakes — we’re all diagnostic by nature. I distinctly remember being struck by how close to perfection they were.”

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