Second candidate for symphony director job

The second candidate for the position of music director of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra is a busy man with a hectic schedule.

"Busy is good in the music business," said Daniel Meyer, who is a resident conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony, and music director of the Asheville (N.C.) Symphony, the Erie (Pa.) Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony.

With all his travels, Meyer - an Ohio native - says he actually calls four places "home."

"Asheville, Pittsburgh, Erie and New York are my 'homes' currently," Meyer said.

His wife, Mary Persin, is based in New York City playing with the Biava Quartet, which is why he also calls the Big Apple a home base. Persin, a violist, is a founding member of the group that holds the Lisa Arnhold Quartet residency at the Juilliard School.

Asked why he was interested in becoming music director of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Meyer was very open.

"To be honest, I haven't been to Richmond yet, and I haven't worked with the orchestra," he said in a recent phone interview. "But the sheer strength of its reputation is quite evident. And I don't mean just the orchestra. The reputation of Richmond being a dynamic community has really piqued my interest.

"I'm always looking for opportunities where I can collaborate with a group of musicians that not only are highly regarded in their community, but also understand that performing passionate and beautifully executed concerts is one of the best ways to promote excellence in music and continue to expose listeners to the best in music."

Meyer, 36, plans on leaving his position with the Pittsburgh Symphony when his contract is up at the end of the current season, his seventh. He plans to continue with Asheville and Erie.

Meyer worked closely with the Pittsburgh Youth Orchestra, recently having led a tour of China. "It was eye-opening for us," he said. "China is experiencing a prodigious growth of interest in classical music. There was hardly a person we talked with that wasn't taking piano or violin lessons. So that's great to see."

Meyer said his musical preferences lie within the core of the Viennese School of composers. Generally this means he likes the standards. But he doesn't shy from the modernist class.

"I find that any time I'm working with a contemporary composer - a John Corigliano, for example - I find out that they are, or were, basically the same way," he said. "They might be 'modern' composers, but their learning and their love of music came from the great early composers."

Meyer programs concerts with a purpose.

"The pieces I choose for a program generally have a reason for being there," he said. "If I'm going to program Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony, there's going to be some thread or some interesting aspect of that piece that then helps me choose the rest of the program.

"I envision myself more as a curator of music. I won't program modern music just to program modern music, or old music just to have old music. There's a reason for it all," Meyer said. "Pieces should illuminate each other for a reason."

Meyer was viewed by a contingent from the Richmond Symphony while he was conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Richmond's first candidate, Mikhail Agrest, was discovered at a special event sponsored by the League of American Orchestras. And that was the way Meyer became connected with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra three years ago.

As music director of the Richmond Symphony, Meyer would find himself a little busier than in Asheville.

"Asheville does seven masterworks programs and one pops program per season," Meyer said. "So Richmond has a fuller makeup in a performance sense. Plus, Asheville doesn't have a paid full-time core of musicians as Richmond does."

Meyer was to conduct the Richmond Symphony in its first Haydn Festival Series program on Friday night, and will take the podium for the orchestra's second Masterworks Series concert this Friday.
Contact Walt Amacker at (804) 649-6247 or