he Palo Alto Philharmonic Association is sounding a fanfare for its coming season, with a new conductor and the world premiere of an original concerto.
"The sky's the limit," said Ann Krinitsky, the newly named music director and conductor. "I believe the orchestra and I have found a good match for each other."
Krinitsky replaces Gideon Grau, who retired after 16 years as conductor and director. She was chosen for the position in June, after she and three others served as guest conductors last season. There had originally been 44 applicants.
"What we liked about Ann was her energy and poise at the podium and the broad musical knowledge needed to take the orchestra to a new level," board president Rick Saxton of Palo Alto said. A member of the orchestra, he plays bass trombone.
The respect was mutual. "When I auditioned last December the thing that impressed me most about the musicians was how quickly they improved from the first rehearsal to the concert," she said. "Most were seeing the piece for the first time and their response to my requests and direction was excellent.
"They're game for the challenges I put to them, and they play with tremendous enthusiasm, courage, and integrity."
Krinitksy, a saxophonist and jazz pianist, has strong Bay Area ties. She was interim director of orchestras at Stanford University for the 2002-2003 academic year. As assistant conductor of the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, she traveled with the ensemble on its European tour.
The Women's Philharmonic of San Francisco awarded her a prestigious conducting award in a competition in 2001.
For the upcoming season, Krinitsky has given each of the seven concerts a theme. The Oct. 23 opener is called "Have Music, Will Travel" and includes works by Gioacchino Rossini, Joseph Haydn and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
The Feb. 18 concert will have a "Dazzling Drumming, Jumping Jazz, and Black History Month" theme. It includes an original concerto for timpani (kettle drums) and orchestra that was composed by the orchestra's composer-in-residence, Lee Actor.
"There's a little bit of nepotism in our programming," Krinistsky said with humor, noting that her husband, Stuart Chafetz -- the principal timpanist of the Honolulu Symphony -- will play the concerto.
Actor, who has been composer-in-residence since 2002 and assistant conductor since 2001, said scoring the piece was a challenge.
"There aren't many pieces that feature the timpani because it's not a melodic instrument. What I've come up with is something playful, jazzy, and light in nature," he said.
The composer's wife, Geri Actor, has been principal violist for the orchestra almost from the start and is a past board president.
Philharmonic musicians are volunteers, mostly with day jobs in fields varying from medical and high-tech fields to universities and teaching music. Each year they play four concerts with the full orchestra and two chamber concerts with a lesser number of musicians at Cubberley Theatre in Palo Alto. A youth/family concert at the Palo Alto Art Center rounds out the year.
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