The DeKalb Symphony Orchestra has named Paul Bhasin as its new music director.
The symphony spent its 2022 season auditioning for a new music director/conductor. It is part of a complete restructure of the organization’s leadership that began with the hiring of Alan Hopper as executive director last year. The pandemic delayed the audition process that allowed the four final candidates for music director to conduct a concert and work with the symphony’s musicians.
Those auditions were held in a series of performances earlier this year.
The orchestra was founded in 1964 and has more than 80 musicians, most of them volunteer. There are at least eight concerts each year, and the symphony is based on the campus of Perimeter College of Georgia State University’s Clarkston Campus. The orchestra is about to launch its 58th season.
Bhasin also serves as director of orchestral studies at Emory University and conducts the Emory University Symphony Orchestra, the Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra and teaches conducting.
“I am thrilled to be joining the DeKalb Symphony as its Music Director,” Bhasin said in a press release. “When I led the orchestra earlier this year, I was impressed by both the musicianship of the orchestra’s musicians as well as their commitment and enthusiasm for its cultural mission. I am honored to help advance this mission in the DSO’s next chapter, and look forward to working with the musicians, board, executive director and all who support the orchestra.”
Bhasin won the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition in 1998, and has since led a variety of university, academic and professional ensembles throughout North America. He recent performed at the Kennedy Center and in the People’s Republic of China.
He is the music director and conductor of the Atlanta Chamber Music Festival.
The trumpet is his instrument of choice and he has recorded under the batons of such conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, James Conlon, James DePriest and Gustav Meier.
