After a long two-year search and after over 50 applicants, dozens of interviews, and a several-months-long audition process, the Knox Galesburg Symphony have announced their next Maestro: Vlad Vizireanu. Vizireanu’s resume includes numerous positions – with stops at Indiana University, the Arizona Pro Arte Ensemble, Arizona State University, and Thousand Oaks Philharmonic as an assisting conductor. He has been a music director for North Shore Symphony Orchestra, Seraphim Symphony, and the New West Symphony Harmony Project. Most recently, Vizireanu is the founder and executive director of the Impulse New Music Festival in Santa Barbara, California. “A lot of people would say that a conductor’s job is just to bring out exactly what the composer wants,” Vizireanu told WGIL before his guest conducting a performance in April with the symphony’s Tragedy and Triumph concert. “It’s true. There’s such a difference when you really feel to that extreme level almost, you express so much more. I think the audience can tell. Of course, I think the orchestra can tell. If we don’t put at least a little bit of ourselves in there, I think we’re taking something away from the process. So I am very much – I am a very expressive person – a very emotional person on the podium. You’ll definitely see a lot or me in these pieces as well.” The Transylvania native will officially be taking over next month. The next KGS MasterWorks program will be unveiled later this summer with the first performance slated for October.
