Today the SLSO announced four new players who are joining the orchestra, as well as three musicians who will receive permanent status next season, and one longtime member who is moving to an associate principal position.
The new players come from orchestras in Louisville, Denver, Birmingham and Miami: Shannon Farrell, the new principal viola (taking over from Kathleen Mattis, who performed beautifully as acting principal), played most recently with the Louisville Symphony; Carolyn Landis, utility horn, who spent the last four seasons with the Colorado Symphony (where Greg Roosa, horn, and Josh MacCluer, trumpet, both played previously); Philip Ross, second oboe, from the Alabama Symphony; and David DeRiso, double bass, who comes most recently from the New World Symphony, that remarkable training orchestra for young musicians, under the directorship of Michael Tilson Thomas.
Those with the familiar faces that will remain are Sarah Hogan, double bass, Shawn Weil, second violin, and Bryan Florence, viola. They worked previous seasons as one-year replacement players. It is a welcome event when a young musician finds an orchestra home. It is a welcome event for an orchestra to be renewed by such excellent young players.
Melissa Brooks-Rubright moves to associate principal cello after being a member of the section since 1992. I saw Melissa on the stairs last spring not long after it was known that she’d been awarded the new position. The audition process is an arduous one, and Melissa had gone through it while maintaining her regular concert responsibilities, and while raising a three-year-old. She looked very tired, but, when I asked if she was happy, she smiled with delight.
