Hartford Symphony Orchestra announces four finalists for new music director

The Hartford Symphony Orchestra has announced the four finalists from its search for a new music director.

Carolyn Kuan announced in May 2025 that she will step down at the end of that season after 16 seasons as the orchestra’s music director.

Kuan is the first female music director in Hartford Symphony Orchestra history. The successful candidate will be just the 11th music director in the history of Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

It is customary in a search for a new music director of a symphony orchestra that audiences get a chance to see the candidates conduct the orchestra. Each of the four will be a guest conductor a concert during the 2026-27 season. The Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra underwent a similar process, inviting four finalists to guest conduct before selecting Eduardo Leandro as its new music director last year.

Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s 2025-26 season includes a ballet, a Shakespeare play and an art show

Here are the four finalists for music director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra:

Yaniv Dinur is currently the music director of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra and the Tallahassee Symphony, the artistic director of Winterlude Chamber Music Series at the Villa Terrace Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the artistic director of the Milwaukee Chamber Music Festival. He was born in Jerusalem and first conducted professionally when he was 19 years old. A New Bedford Symphony concert earlier this month found Dinur conducting works by Samuel Barber, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Tchaikovsky. Dinur will be the guest conductor for the Masterworks program Oct. 23-25.

Jonathan Taylor Rush, the only Connecticut-raised candidate among the finalists,  was born in Windsor. He is a former associate conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and was also the artistic director of the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra. Among Rush’s upcoming engagements is with the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra in October, conducting a tribute to the late gospel music innovator Richard Smallwood. He is guest conducting at the Hartford Symphony Orchestra Nov. 20-22.

Alastair Willis is the current music director of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra and the Symphonia Boca Raton. He was born in Acton, Massachusetts but grew up in Russia and England. He will be conducting Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony in South Bend at the end of this month. His guest conducting dates in Hartford are Dec. 11-13.

John Morris Russell is the music director of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and of the Hilton Head Symphony in South Carolina. An upcoming Cincinnati Pops concert he is conducting is a multimedia “American Mosaic” event narrated by Martin Sheen. Russell is the guest conductor at the Hartford Symphony Orchestra Feb. 12–14, 2027.

All the candidates have experience across numerous classic music eras and genres, from pops programs to new works and in some cases studio recordings.

The specific pieces being performed during the Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s 2026-27 season have not yet been announced.

Each candidate’s guest conducting engagement is part of a weeklong stay in Hartford where they will be meeting with the orchestra musicians, board members and staff and engaging with the community. The visits are part of their overall evaluation.

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