By Andrea Smith
The Delaware Symphony Orchestra is entering a new era with its 120th concert season, as illustrated in a Taylor Swift-esque poster with Music Director Michelle Di Russo at the center.
Like Swift, Di Russo knows how to captivate a live audience and often does so while sporting bold red lipstick. She’s also in her mid-thirties and connects with people of all ages through music, and as DSO’s first female music director, she’s already making history in the Delaware arts scene. Her debut mainstage concert on Friday, Oct. 10, “Virtuosity Unleashed: A New Era,” launches a season that welcomes both the connoisseur and the curious.
“We’re trying things to bring people into the concert hall, to find community there,”
Di Russo shares. “I don’t want anyone to feel intimidated. I want them to think coming to one of our concerts is an approachable, fun experience, and that they can talk to me. … I want to know what you liked, what you didn’t like, and I want to break that formality that there’s been for so long in classical music.”
Di Russo, an Argentinian-Italian conductor, is new to this position and only the sixth music director in the organization’s history, but she’s well-versed as a musician and performer. Dancing and singing were her first loves, but after studying conducting and experiencing it herself, she realized her true passion. She’s guest conducted for the LA Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Portland Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, and Toledo Ballet — plus cover conducted for numerous others. She was the interim director of orchestras at Cornell University, the associate conductor of the North Carolina Symphony, and most recently the associate conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony.
“When this opportunity came by, I was like, ‘I’m ready,’ you know, to be a music director, to take this leadership role, and to do the job,” Di Russo says. “I’m very happy that I got it.”
The search for a new director took almost two years and attracted 147 applicants from around the world. The search committee comprised members of the DSO board, orchestra, community and CEO J.C. Barker, and they selected four finalists to visit Delaware last season to test their connection with the musicians and with local audiences.
“We did surveys of the community and the members of the audience, and there were a lot of things that went into making a decision, but at the end of the process, Michelle was the clear winner,” Barker says. “She represents a new generation of orchestra leaders, orchestra conductors.”
The feeling was mutual for Di Russo, who quickly felt at home in Wilmington. “Even before I got the job, I felt a special connection with the musicians, but also with the staff and the audience,” she says. “It’s just a really special place.”
Di Russo succeeds David Amado, who’s now DSO’s first music director laureate after 20 seasons at the helm. He’ll continue to have influence and occasionally conduct concerts in the future, but Barker says this season is Di Russo’s time to shine: “Every music director brings their personality, and Michelle’s personality is scattered throughout this entire season.”
This new era is an opportunity to usher in younger audiences and make the experience more inclusive — a challenge for orchestras nationwide.
“In the last five years, six years, orchestras have seen that the old model of just catering to a small population of communities is not successful, and honestly, it’s not part of our mission,” Barker says, looking toward the framed mission statement above his desk. “Our mission is [to enrich] lives through inspiring musical performances. Our vision is music for Delaware, access for all, connecting diverse audiences and communities throughout Delaware and beyond.”
Di Russo plans to collaborate more with local organizations and schools to bring classical music to those who might never step foot inside The Grand, plus make the concert hall environment more comfortable for families.
“There are a lot of families in Delaware, and they need to be able to come maybe to a matinee concert where their children can enjoy it without being chastised for making noises,” says Di Russo. She highlights the “Jingle Bell Jamboree” as an afternoon event catering to kids’ attention spans, along with the “Beethoven and Blue Jeans” series earlier in the season that encourages a relaxed dress code.
Di Russo chooses music that she believes will resonate with Delawareans and not be redundant of what’s playing in neighboring cities. Ultimately, she’s bringing music that she personally enjoys in order to share her authentic enthusiasm with audiences.
“The piece that opens the [“Virtuosity Unleashed: A New Era”] concert is by Gabriela Ortiz. She’s a Mexican composer, and I put in a piece by her because I wanted to bring something from my roots, from Latin America. But also, I did a piece by her in my audition, and people loved it,” says Di Russo. “I’m trying to be true to myself and honest with what I want to do, and try to continue the legacy … There’s so much we can build upon.”