NEW DIRECTION: Scottsdale Symphonic Orchestra Welcomes Music Director

Last season, the top five candidates guest conducted concerts and took part in rehearsal processes as part of their interview process. During the March concert which Siu guest-conducted, the orchestra performed Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to “West Side Story,” a William Grant Still arrangement of Florence Price’s “Dances in the Canebrakes,” William C. White’s “Acadia Fanfare” and Antonín Dvořák’s “Symphony No. 9 in E Minor from the New World, Op. 95”.

The orchestra members took part in the final review and selection process. The group is made up of 70 to 90 professionally trained musicians, who are all volunteering their time.

“Most of them have been playing almost all of their lives,” Siu said. “They are obviously music lovers of the classical genre…. They come from everywhere, from music teachers, to pilots, people in customer service, engineers, you name it. They’re all here to play music once a week with this orchestra. I think it’s a really beautiful thing, and it’s my job to make sure they sound good and have a good time”.

Siu said he had to wait sometime after his final interview to hear back that he had gotten the job. “It’s not like a regular interview where you’ll know within a couple of weeks,” he said. “I had to wait a few months. A few people who went before me had to wait almost an entire half year… Everyone had their chance of showing what they can do, how they rehearse, how they perform, how they interact with the orchestra”.

Siu grew up in Gilbert and attended Highland High School. He has been conducting for almost 10 years and is currently the artistic director and principal conductor of Orchestra Northern Arizona and an adjunct violin professor at Northern Arizona University. He is also a violinist who has been playing the violin since age 10 and performs with the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra, Arizona Philharmonic, San Juan Symphony and Sedona Symphony.

In the past, he has served as acting music director for Arizona Pro Arte, assistant conductor for the NAU Orchestras and assistant conductor for the Skidmore College Orchestra. Siu will conduct most of the concerts for Scottsdale Symphonic during the upcoming season, except for Nov. 10 and Dec. 15, when Chuck Stewart will guest-conduct.

Siu said that being the first music director for the orchestra is both exciting and daunting. “In Flagstaff, I had some blueprints to follow the first year and a half before I found my own way,” he said. “But here, they are like, ‘What do you like to do? Let’s hear it.’ I told them, and they said, ‘Cool, let’s try it.’ I can’t wait to see what the membership thinks when we start rehearsals”.

The symphonic orchestra performs a mix of classic masterworks and pieces from new conductors. Siu said it is important to the orchestra to bring works by composers with which audiences may not be as familiar.

“Part of the organization’s mission is to promote underrepresented composers and underrepresented cultures within classical music,” he said. “I think that’s an idea that speaks to me as an Asian American”.

Siu worked closely with the organization’s board of directors to plan the season. He said it was important to include a mix of different classical composers, so that musicians receive equal playing time and audiences get exposure to different styles of classical music. “Music is one of those things that you cannot know enough in,” he said. “So, you just have to pursue that thirst of knowledge all the time”.

The season will open with the “Fate’s Return” concert on Oct. 20 featuring Coleridge-Taylor’s “Ballade in A Minor” and Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 4 in F Minor”.

Their “American Celebration” concert on Nov. 10 will pay tribute to veterans with selections such as Copland’s Hoedown from “Rodeo” and “Variations on a Shaker Melody” and John Williams “Hymn to the Fallen” from “Saving Private Ryan”.

On Dec. 15, the orchestra will hold its “A Holiday Celebration” concert, featuring Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite,” Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” and a special holiday sing-along.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day on Feb. 16, the group will perform an “East Meets West A Love Story” concert with music such as Chen Gang/He Zhanhao’s “Butterfly Lovers Concerto,” Verdi’s Overture to “La Forza del Destino” and Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet”. Steven Moeckel will serve as a guest violin soloist.

Scottsdale Symphonic will celebrate Women’s History Month with its “Powerful Women” concert on March 23, which will feature Mary Watkins’ “Soul of Remembrance,” Laura Pettigrew’s “Dóchas,” Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” and Maria Grenfell’s “Roar!”.

The season will close out with the “Connected through Music” concert on May 11, which will spotlight Henry Flurry’s “Fanfare for My City,” Grant Still’s “Symphony No. 1 in A Flat Major ‘Afro-American'” and Dvořák’s “Cello Concerto in B Minor”. Peter Eom will join the orchestra as a soloist