Paul Haas was at the start of a promising conducting career when he devised and produced an innovative genre-breaking concert project called REWIND in 2006, featuring violin soloist Anne Akiko Meyers. The project enjoyed great critical and audience success, prompting Haas to found Sympho, an organization devoted to the creation and performance of symphonic experiences in unusual venues.

One result of these creative undertakings is Haas’ emergence as a composer: over the last decade, fifteen commissions have come in from iconic venues, including the Park Avenue Armory and Rubin Museum of Art in New York and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

As conductor, Haas has served as Music Director of the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas (SoNA) since 2010 and of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra since 2017. SoNA has grown its operations substantially under his tenure, and Haas has already had a profound impact on the TBSO, which is widely considered one of Canada's best regional orchestras.