Troy Quinn is the Juneau Symphony’s first guest conductor for the 2014-2015 concert season.
The symphony is trying out three conductors to replace Kyle Wiley Pickett, who led as musical director for 14 years. The three were narrowed from a pool of about 70 applicants.
The volunteer Juneau orchestra performs under Quinn’s leadership during two performances this weekend.
At a Juneau Symphony rehearsal, Troy Quinn appears at ease and confident. He stands in front of the full orchestra giving critique and direction, and sometimes making the musicians laugh.
Quinn, 31, is already the music director of the Portsmouth Institute Orchestra in Rhode Island, which he founded. Quinn is a native of Connecticut and went to Providence College in Rhode Island. The orchestra is in its sixth season.
“No longer is it enough to just have the musical chops. I think that’s first and foremost, but nowadays music directors and conductors need to have a business sense of things, the need to do the financial fundraising part of it. So that gave me a great experience at a young age, doing all that on my own,” Quinn says.
Quinn lives in Los Angeles, where he got his doctorate in conducting at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. He’s also a professional singer and does freelance studio work in the television and recording industry.
When Quinn saw the job opening for the Juneau Symphony music director,
“I said, ‘Hmm. This looks interesting.’ I’m very, very intrigued by the community and by the thriving arts culture that goes on here, so I thought that would be a nice supplement to my bicoastal events,” Quinn says.
This weekend’s Juneau Symphony concert is an array of film and classical music that Quinn hopes will appeal to both new and experienced symphony listeners.
“I’m looking to challenge the musicians and also for something accessible to our audiences and something diverse. None of the three pieces have ever been performed by the Juneau Symphony. I wanted to do something different. And so when I was thinking about the programming, I said, ‘Let’s do something we’ve never done before,'” Quinn says.
The first piece is a suite from William Walton’s musical score of the 1944 film, “Henry V.”
“It’s a Shakespearean film but if you like ‘Lord of the Rings’-esque music, it’s like that, just a precursor really. It’s rarely heard. It’s just got a lot of different aspects and a lot of percussion. It’s just thrilling music,” Quinn says.
Next will be the Haydn “Trumpet Concerto,” featuring Joseph Foley, principal trumpet of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and a colleague of Quinn’s. The show will close with Mendelssohn’s “Italian Symphony.”
The Juneau Symphony plays this weekend at Juneau-Douglas High School. Saturday’s show is at 8 p.m., Sunday’s is 3 p.m. There will be a concert conversation with Quinn one hour before each performance.
The Juneau Symphony’s next guest conductor will be featured in February.
