BARNSTABLE – The Cape Symphony is continuing its search for the next music director after the departure of Jung-Ho Pak, but they are in no rush to crown a successor.
The decision is not one that is being taken lightly, says Mike Albaugh, Executive Director of the Cape Symphony, as the right individual needs to be someone who understands the multifaceted nature of the organization that does more than just put on performances.
“The other half of what we do is education, we have a youth orchestra, there’s a dance company, there’s a variety of education. We have a huge preschool program, and when we’re trying to look ahead we wanted to find someone who embraces all of the values that the Cape Symphony, as an organization, has to offer,” Albaugh said.
To find the perfect candidate the organization has put together a committee made of five board members, five musicians, two staff members, and a member of the community to discuss and decide future plans.
The Cape Symphony committee decided to open a search in September, says Albaugh, which brought in hundreds of applications for the position, leading them to phase two of the process that involves the musicians working to narrow down the candidates.
“We’re going to try to call down to about 20 to 25 of those candidates, and we’re going to pair one musician with one board member, so they can actually break those 25 down, which we call the sort of the ‘research phase’, to about 10 or 15,” said Albaugh.
Next will come the interviews Albaugh continued, to ask questions and try to filter the decision down to just three to five possibilities.
The goal of the search will be to have a decision made by the end of the calendar year so they can then take approximately two months to engage those remaining candidates to program concerts for next fall.
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