The Lima Symphony Orchestra has picked their next conductor.
Andrew Crust was chosen out of the seven finalists to be the Music Director and Conductor at the start of the next symphony season. Crust visited Lima in February, where he conducted the “Mad Love” concert and talked to music students at the Lima Senior and did a concert storytime at the Lima Public Library. He is currently the associate conductor for the Vancouver Symphony in Canada, and he is excited to work with Lima Orchestra.
“I found that they were so professional and really were playing a lot of intensity and really wanted to make really great music together,” says the new Lima Symphony Orchestra Conductor Andrew Crust. ”I also found a community that really supports the symphony and I think that this community doesn't want anything to happen in this fantastic organization. They want to support it; they want to build it up and that was a really warm sort of welcome. So it was a wonderful experience I had.”
The symphony started with 187 candidates which they whittled down to the seven Finalist. Most of them were able to come to Lima to meet the community and the orchestra. The board says all the finalists were equally good, but Crust had something that put him over the top.
“There is a certain chemistry I think with the orchestra and that's incredibly important and that you just can't you can't force if it's not there,” says Elizabeth Ellis-Brown, Ex. Dir of the Lima Symphony Orchestra. “Andrew is authentic and genuine and has this vast knowledge of repertoire and just the way he embraced the community and he was so curious about getting to know us and making sure that we fit into what he’s looking for as an orchestra and that he could be the right music director for us. It was just a great process.”
Crust is replacing Crafton Beck, who served as the music director and conductor for the Lima Symphony for more than 20 years.
