Delaware Symphony Orchestra’s new music director lowers barriers to classical music

Delaware Symphony Orchestra had created the soundtrack of a bird flying through a thunderstorm, battered by the wind before emerging from the tempest with a triumphant note.

At the eye of the storm was conductor and music director Michelle Di Russo, who had chosen the piece, “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman,” to kick off her second season with the orchestra. She joined the 120-year-old institution last year after an extensive, two-year hiring process. 

Oct. 2 marked the first concert of Delaware Symphony Orchestra’s current season, and Di Russo’s first choosing all the music herself. She knew that “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman” had to come first.

Composer Joan Tower wrote the piece in 1987 in response to Aaron Copland’s stately “Fanfare for the Common Man,” using the same instrumentation to produce an entirely different feeling. Tower dedicated it to conductor Marin Alsop, who broke gender barriers by being the first woman music director of a major American orchestra. 

Alsop was Di Russo’s hero when she began studying conducting in her homeland of Argentina in 2009. 

Di Russo had developed an “absolute passion” for leading an orchestra but didn’t see herself represented on the conductor’s podium. Even today, an overwhelming majority of American conductors and music directors are men.

“(My sister) told me, ‘Why don’t you look up other women who are doing what you want to do?’” Di Russo said. “I found Marin (Alsop), and I was like, ‘Wow, she’s amazing!’ It was such a huge inspiration for me.”

Di Russo then discovered the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship for women conductors and connected with one of the fellows, who gave her advice about applying for schools in the United States. 

Di Russo has since crossed paths with Alsop several times, and in January received a two-year Taki Alsop associate fellowship, which includes coaching by Alsop. 

Now that Di Russo is in a position to pass on her own wisdom, she’s working to create a Delaware Symphony Orchestra conducting mentorship pilot program that will launch this year. Many of the details are still under wraps, but Di Russo believes it will help eliminate barriers in the same way Alsop’s fellowship helped her.

“Having that support from her and from the community she’s created is really encouraging, and it makes the profession a bit less lonely,” Di Russo said. “She calls it a sisterhood, because we’re all very connected and really help each other.”

Cenotes and suffragettes

Di Russo’s introduction to music was through dance. At 3 years old, she began participating in ballet, jazz dance and tap dance, which quickly snowballed into piano and vocal lessons and musical theater. 

Di Russo’s roots as a professional dancer can be seen in her physicality on the conductor’s podium. During rehearsals, she keeps a cloth nearby to wipe the sweat off her forehead and sometimes gets so into the music that she accidentally throws her baton. Thankfully, that’s never happened in front of an audience, she said with a laugh.

Di Russo became hooked on conducting while studying at Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina. During a second-year exam, she realized directing an orchestra  allowed her to express herself in an entirely different way than dancing did. 

“It encompasses an even bigger world (than dancing), and that’s what I was looking for. I was looking for this direct, human connection of making music together. I was looking for a place where I could have my voice and express it,” she said. 

Di Russo’s musical voice can be heard in her selections for Delaware Symphony Orchestra this season. The centuries-old masterworks have their place, but more recent compositions are given just as much recognition. 

For example, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra in April will play Gabriela Ortiz’s cello concerto “Dzonot,” which won a Grammy Award earlier this year. 

Named for the Spanish word for “cenote,” Ortiz’s concerto is an ode to the underground pools and caverns found in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. These cenotes supply drinking water in southeastern Mexico and are home to wildlife like jaguars and Toh birds, but they have faced biodegradation from sewage disposal, agricultural runoff and other human interference. Ortiz wrote “Dzonot” as a form of protest.

One reason Di Russo is passionate about playing recent work is because she can collaborate with the composers. She can’t exactly do that with Beethoven, at least without some necromancy involved. 

For example, Sarah Kirkland Snider will guide the orchestra as they rehearse “Forward Into Light,” her 2020 composition inspired by the women’s suffrage movement. Delaware Symphony Orchestra will play the piece as part of the “Hidden Voices” concert on Jan. 22. 

While the masterworks have remained beloved for a reason, Di Russo believes sprinkling in recent works by a more diverse group of composers will draw in new audiences.

“This music is being composed while living the things we’re living — while going through a pandemic, while going through hardships together, challenges, exciting things,” Di Russo said. “It should be easy to connect, because they are being inspired by the world you are living in.”

‘You can connect on any level’

Many of Delaware Symphony Orchestra’s six music directors, including Di Russo’s predecessor, David Amado, have stayed in the role for more than 20 years. However long Di Russo’s tenure lasts, she wants to leave a legacy of making the orchestra a welcoming space for everyone. 

Her commitment to that goal can be seen during concerts, where she often holds the door open for guests, thanking them for coming. 

And it isn’t only out-of-towners in tuxedos and cocktail dresses who are welcome within the walls of The Grand. 

Any elitist stigma associated with the orchestra is quickly dashed by Di Russo’s forthright sense of humor on the podium. Last season, she described the sound of a piece as the music “vomiting,” which got a laugh out of the audience.

“It sounds very rude, but they really connected with that, actually. At the end, a lot of people told me, ‘You know what? It actually did sound like that,’” she said. “You can connect on any level, and it doesn’t have to be an inspired, high-level way of connecting.”

On a financial level, Delaware Symphony Orchestra lowers the barrier to entry by offering $2 admission for Delawarean and Pennsylvanian EBT cardholders and up to three guests. Local university students studying music can also get in for free. 

Delaware Symphony Orchestra also offers occasional free concerts, like on Independence Day. 

“That opened up the orchestra to a new audience that had never seen the orchestra, didn’t even know it existed,” Di Russo said. “We need to try to do more. Of course, they’re expensive, so we need to find the right support, either from the city or grants.”

Educational musician visits to schools and libraries are equally important to Di Russo. 

“When you’re trying to bring them in in their 20s, sometimes, it’s too late. They’re already not interested,” she said. “If you hear an orchestra when you’re in fourth grade … it’s mind-blowing, and then it becomes a part of your life because you’re so enthralled by it.”

Di Russo hopes all Delawareans realize the Delaware Symphony Orchestra is a resource for everyone, not only those who can afford a season pass. After all, music is a language that anyone can understand.

“The community can find the concert hall as a place of solace, a place of reflection, a place of connection, a place to be happy … whatever it is that they need to come feel,” Di Russo said. “(I want them to) come for those reasons, not, ‘It’s just another concert.’ I want them to come and feel the music and connect with us in this unspoken language.”