New Syracuse Orchestra Artistic Director Austin Chanu is ready to listen to the community and collaborate with other cultural organizations to increase the reach of the musical group.
Chanu takes over the position July 6th. He takes the position last held by Laurance Loh, who left May, 2025.
The structure of the Syracuse Orchestra as a cooperative appealed to Chanu, “I like that idea of having the musicians be in leadership positions, and having a much stronger say in the artistic direction of the organization.”
During the search process for the role, he had the opportunity to conduct the Orchestra for a concert, “And I remember from the first 10 minutes of rehearsal, it was really clear how musical and how engaged the orchestra was. And as a conductor, as a guest conductor, I've gone around and worked with a lot of different orchestras around the country, around the world. And … within even the first 5 minutes, it felt like the orchestra was really ready to try the musical ideas I was showing and was like really just on board to try new things.”
Musicians have told Chanu they’re ready to crat more of a community footprint for the orchestra. And he said he’s open to collaborations.
“And so to me, a music director needs to be someone that lives in the city, that's an active member of the community, that's able to build trust, takes time, obviously, but build trust with different people so that you can present artistic ideas and have that kind of inherent trust built in that people want to come and support the orchestra and that the orchestra can go out and be an artistic member of the community.” Chanu said.
He appreciates and supports some of the programming structure already in place, with the masterworks series, the Casual series and the Pops series, “but I'm hoping to be able to grow and expand those or to create connections with different members of the community to like get them interested by what kind of music or programs are they looking for and how can we bring that into one of these different series?”
Chanu said he’s looking forward to start building bonds with the musicians to help with his vision of growing and elevating the orchestra.
“But what I think is already inherently nice about, again, this model of this orchestra (s a cooperative) is that the musicians are so invested in the growth of the orchestra. And they're, like a lot of musicians are the ones helping program on the artistic committee. They're ones like doing social media or like building kind of new connections with different community members,” said Chanu. “I just want, I want as much collaboration from the musicians that are willing to like do stuff off the stage too, that are willing to go out in the community with me or go out and create connections and build that.”
The Syracuse Orchestra has several outdoor concerts coming up:
- July 3, 2026 @ 8:00 pm
Emerson Park Auburn
The Syracuse Orchestra performs at the pavilion at Emerson Park on the north shore of Owasco Lake. Enjoy light classical favorites, patriotic - July 8, 2026 @ 7:00 pm
Fort Ontario, Oswego
The Syracuse Orchestra performs inside historic Fort Ontario. Enjoy light classical favorites, patriotic tunes, and popular standards. All ages are welcome for - July 9, 2026 @ 7:30 pm
Village Green, Hamilton
The Syracuse Orchestra performs on the Village Green. Enjoy light classical favorites, patriotic tunes, and popular standards. All ages are welcome. - July 10, 2026 @ 7:30 pm
Clayton Opera House, Clayton
The Syracuse Orchestra pairs some of the most famous classical music selections with popular works from film composers and pieces from Broadway - July 11, 2026 @ 7:30 pm
Fayetteville Beard Park, Fayetteville
The Syracuse Orchestra performs light classical favorites, patriotic tunes, and popular standards. All ages are welcome for a relaxed evening of music.
The Syracuse Orchestra's next full season starts October 3rd.
