Photo by Jim Weber // Buy this photo
Musician Irene Wade (left) welcomes the Memphis Symphony Orchestra's new music director, Mei-Ann Chen, with a bouquet after a news conference Monday at The Cannon Center for the Performing Arts to formally introduce her.
With a brass quintet providing the fanfare, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra formally introduced Mei-Ann Chen, 36, as its new music director Monday.
Shelby County Mayor Joe Ford, Memphis Mayor AC Wharton and MSO officials presented Chen with a baton brought in by a FedEx courier at a ceremony on the stage at The Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, where she will guide the orchestra's musical future and seek to connect with the community.
Photo by Jim Weber
Musician Irene Wade (left) welcomes the Memphis Symphony Orchestra's new music director, Mei-Ann Chen, with a bouquet after a news conference Monday at The Cannon Center for the Performing Arts to formally introduce her.
Photo by Jim Weber
Chen is presented with a new baton by Mayor A C Wharton during the news conference Monday. The Taiwan-born music director plans to get acquainted with the community and "to shape a bold artistic vision."
"The Memphis Symphony has a reputation nationwide of showing how truly innovative it can be as an orchestra and I intend to build on that," she said.
Her first tasks will be to meet as many people as she can in Memphis and to work with the orchestra's musicians, management and board "to shape a bold artistic vision. And I'm totally committed to bring the orchestra to the next level."
Chen said her vision includes building new bridges and strengthening relationships in the community, as well as making fresh musical moves such as experimenting with the concert format and combining different art forms and striving for greater educational impact.
Cheering her on was Dean Deyo, president of the Memphis Music Foundation, who said, "This is such a bold move for the orchestra and the community. We need all forms of our music working at full speed and we've got such an asset in the MSO."
The upcoming season, Chen said, will be about discovery and exploring new possibilities that she hopes "will connect to different parts of the community." Plans for the 2010-11 season have not been completed yet, but she did announce an appearance by popular violinist Joshua Bell performing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto.
The MSO will also perform a premiere of a commissioned work by noted composer Osvaldo Golijov. Longstanding favorites are also scheduled, including Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade." Pops concerts will include a salute to Gershwin and a concert of music by Billy Joel and Elton John.
Chen's résumé includes jobs in Portland, Ore., Atlanta and Baltimore.
Andy Yu, a violinist with the MSO, was particularly pleased that a countryman of his was now on the podium.
He said of the Taiwan-born Chen that "what she has achieved is unimaginably tough. I feel very proud that she is on the podium."
Chen will move to town this summer.
"I can't wait," she said, "to make a difference in Memphis."
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