Dear friends,
Welcome to the Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s 83rd season. The HSO is Connecticut’s premier musical organization and a cornerstone of Hartford’s vibrant arts and culture scene. Our mission is to enrich lives and strengthen community through great music—live performances offered with dazzling artistry in ways that are inspiring, welcoming, and relevant.
Our 2026–2027 season begins a remarkable transition—one we have been thoughtfully planning for nearly two years. On May 8, 2025, the HSO announced plans for Carolyn Kuan to conclude her tenure as Music Director in June 2027. Later that month, we formed a blue-ribbon committee, chaired by Board of Directors member Diane Whitney, to conduct a national search for our next Music Director. This dedicated and hard-working team brings together six HSO musicians, four Board members, two staff, and three community members.
The national search launched on June 19, 2025, and within five weeks we received 196 applications. What followed was a six-month process of reviewing applications, interviewing candidates, and selecting four finalists, announced on February 18, 2026: Yaniv Dinur, Jonathan Taylor Rush, Alastair Willis, and John Morris Russell. Each finalist will join us this season for a weeklong residency, with opportunities to deepen their understanding of the HSO, our broader community, and the distinctive possibilities for artistic leadership and civic engagement in the Greater Hartford area. The highlight of each residency will be a full-length masterworks program conducted by that finalist.
We hope you will be part of welcoming each finalist and sharing thoughtful feedback with our search committee. We encourage you to experience all finalist concerts and their pre-concert talks; your presence and perspective will help shape this important decision. We expect to announce our new Music Director in March 2027.
At the same time, we will celebrate Carolyn Kuan’s remarkable 16-year tenure as Music Director. Carolyn is the first woman and the youngest person to serve as Music Director of the HSO. Throughout her tenure, Carolyn has invited audiences to experience orchestral music in new ways by bringing greater attention to works by historically underrepresented composers, conducting world premieres by a range of contemporary composers, and crafting imaginative programs that place modern works alongside classics in ways that provide context and illumination.
For her final season, Carolyn has invited back some of our favorite guest artists – including Clayton Stephenson and Sirena Huang – to perform unforgettable music. The best way to honor all she has given to the HSO is to be present—to listen, to celebrate, and to share in the music that has defined her extraordinary tenure.
We are deeply grateful for the musicians of the HSO; for Carolyn Kuan, our Music Director; for Adam Boyles, our Assistant Conductor; for Steve Collins, our President & CEO; and for our Board of Directors, staff, patrons, donors, sponsors, partners, volunteers, and community leaders, who work tirelessly to make this vision a reality.
Sincerely,
Bob Bausmith
Chair, Hartford Symphony Orchestra
Board of Directors
Carolyn’s 2026–27 engagements include performances with the National Philharmonic and Hartford Symphony Orchestra, the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival, Seattle Opera’s El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego, and M. Butterfly at La Monnaie. Her final season as Hartford’s Music Director culminates in Carolyn’s Finale: Sirena & Scheherazade in June 2027.
In May 2024, Carolyn Kuan conducted the critically acclaimed New York premiere of Huang Ruo’s An American Soldier, a co-production of the Boston Lyric Opera and the American Composers Orchestra. In July 2024, she made her highly anticipated debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Further highlights have included M. Butterfly with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at London’s Barbican Centre, as well as debut performances with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, and Rheinische Philharmonie in Germany.
In North America, Kuan has led renowned ensembles such as the Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Omaha Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and Toronto Symphony. Her work also includes engagements with the New York City Ballet, the Florida Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, and appearances at the Colorado Music Festival and Glimmerglass Opera Festival.
Internationally, she has worked with prestigious orchestras including the Bournemouth Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Singapore Symphony, Residentie Orkest, and the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. She has also collaborated with the Royal Danish Ballet, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and Borusan Philharmonic Orchestra in Istanbul.
As an opera conductor, Carolyn Kuan has distinguished herself with a diverse repertoire. She conducted Stewart Wallace’s Harvey Milk at Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Huang Ruo’s M. Butterfly at Santa Fe Opera. In the same season, she made her critically acclaimed debut at English National Opera with Philip Glass’s Satyagraha. She also made a
significant impact with New York City Opera's 2019 production of Iain Bell’s Stonewall, marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Earlier, she debuted with Portland Opera in 2018, conducting La Cenerentola.
A recognized expert in Asian contemporary music, Carolyn Kuan directed the San Francisco Symphony’s annual Chinese New Year concert from 2007 to 2012 and launched the Celebrate Asia! program with the Seattle Symphony. She has led world premieres with Music from Japan and multimedia productions like the Butterfly Lovers Concerto and A Monkey’s Tale as part of the Detroit Symphony’s World Music Series.
Carolyn Kuan’s passion for multimedia collaborations shines in Life: A Journey Through Time, a project with Philip Glass and National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting. Developed with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, this production merged music and photography to spotlight environmental issues. Notable performances include the Ninth World Wilderness Congress and the CERN Large Hadron Collider inauguration, where she led the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in front of global leaders and Nobel laureates.
Carolyn Kuan’s past roles include Associate Conductor of the Seattle Symphony, Artist-in-Residence at the New York City Ballet, and Assistant Conductor of the Baltimore Opera. Her recording with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, featuring works by Chinese composers, debuted in 2012 on the Naxos label.
A recipient of numerous awards, Carolyn Kuan was the first woman to receive the Herbert von Karajan Conducting Fellowship in 2003, leading to her residency at the 2004 Salzburg Festival. She was also the inaugural winner of the Taki Concordia Fellowship and has received honors from the Women’s Philharmonic, Conductors Guild, and Susan W. Rose Fund for Music.
Born in Taiwan, Carolyn Kuan moved to the U.S. at age 14 to pursue her music studies. She graduated cum laude from Smith College, earned a Master of Music from the University of Illinois, and a Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory.
September 2026
For nearly two decades, Adam Kerry Boyles has been a notable figure in the musical life of New England. Boyles is currently Director of Orchestras at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Assistant Conductor of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director Emeritus of the Brookline Symphony Orchestra. Previous Music Director positions include six seasons with the Brookline Symphony Orchestra, three seasons with the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra, four seasons with Opera in the Ozarks, and five seasons with MetroWest Opera. Boyles also served on the faculty at The University of Kansas City-Missouri Conservatory of Music, The University of Texas at Austin, and The University of Arizona.
In June 2024, Boyles made his Boston Pops debut stepping in at short notice for Keith Lockhart. Other recent guest engagements include concerts with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Opera Huntsville, Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Lumos, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, New England Philharmonic, Ocean City Pops Orchestra, Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra, and honors orchestras in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Nevada, Tennessee, Oregon, and Rhode Island. Boyles has been a featured clinician with Manhattan Concert Productions, and the Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductors Association.
An accomplished vocalist, Boyles performed in numerous operas with the Indiana University Opera Theater, and in Arizona Opera’s first complete presentation of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. He has sung with many professional choral ensembles across the country such as Conspirare, True Concord, Apollo’s Voice, Mon Choeur, and Cantique. In 2010, Boyles was featured as a guest soloist with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Recently, Boyles was seen onstage in productions of Little Shop of Horrors (Seymour, Theatre at the Bell), and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Monty Navarro, Marblehead Little Theatre)
Boyles received his Doctor of Music in Orchestral Conducting degree from The University of Texas at Austin, his Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting degree from The University of Arizona, and his Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance degree from Indiana University.
The mission of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra is to enrich lives and community through great music. Celebrating it’s 80th Anniversary during the 2023-2024 season, the HSO is Connecticut’s premier musical organization and widely recognized as one of America’s leading regional orchestras.
HSO captivates in inspires audiences by presenting annual concert series and events, including the Masterworks Series, POPS! Series, Sunday Serenades, and the Talcott Mountain Music Festival at the Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center. The HSO aims to deliver uniquely powerful and emotional experiences that lift and transform the spirit and to give back and help create vibrant communities in the Greater Hartford area.
The Hartford Symphony Orchestra named Carolyn Kuan as it tenth music director in January 2011; she is the first woman and youngest person to hold this title. Since beginning her tenure in 2011, she has led the HSO to new artistic heights with community minded concerts and innovative programming.
The Hartford Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1934 and formally established as the Symphony Society of Greater Hartford in 1936. Angelo Coniglione, Jacques Gordon, Leon Barzin, Moshe Paranov and George Heck were the Orchestra’s first music directors. With the appointment of Fritz Mahler in 1953, the HSO began its Young People’s Concerts and made several highly acclaimed recordings for Vanguard. In 1964, Arthur Winograd became music director and the Orchestra grew in artistic stature, performing at Carnegie Hall and other New York locations to highly favorable reviews. Under the leadership of Michael Lankester from 1985-2000, the HSO received national recognition for its programming innovations, including the popular Classical Conversations and Family Matinees, as well as a series of landmark theatrical productions. From 2001-2011, Edward Cumming led the HSO to new levels of artistic excellence and innovative programming.
Each season, the HSO plays to audiences numbering approximately 75,000 statewide, The Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s extensive array of Education and Community Activities serves more than 15,000 individuals in Hartford and the surrounding communities annually.
Artistic Operations
Nathan Scalzone, Director of Artistic Operations
Emily Rafala, Production Manager
DEVELOPMENT
Eric R. Hutchinson, Director of Development
Mariel Christiana, Manager, Corporate & Foundation Relations
Deb Shulansky, Manager, Donor Engagement
Diana Sparks, Manager, Development Operations
EXECUTIVE
Philip Grover, Executive Assistant
FINANCE
Daniel Larkin, Staff Accountant
LEARNING AND SOCIAL IMPACT
Andrew Robbin, Director of Learning and
Social Impact
Jennifer Phipps, Manager of Learning and
Social Impact
MARKETING & PUBLIC RELATIONS
Ashley Fedigan, Director of Marketing and
Public Relations
Faith Quinn, Brand Marketing & Communications Coordinator
TICKET SERVICES
Charles Feierabend, Manager, Box Office