OLEAN, N.Y. — A New York City conductor with roots in the region will head up the Southern Tier Symphony starting this season.
Benjamin Grow, 33, will navigate the three programs a year that the local symphony puts on in Olean and Bradford, Pa., announced executive director Kim Whitney. She said all three candidates were “very worthy,” making the decision a tough one.
“(Grow) has a different approach to music that I think would be enlightening here,” she said.
Grow is a freelance conductor who has worked with several artists and as a prep conductor for the Manhattan School of Music and an assistant conductor at Juilliard School. At the end of July, he was wrapping up as a conducting adviser to the Amazon television series “Mozart in the Jungle.”
“The idea of conducting one kind of music with only one kind of people isn’t really up my ally,” Grow said in a phone interview. “ … I really kind of conduct a little bit of everything, and it’s nourishing to my musical soul.”
Since he was young, Grow has visited his grandparents at their Bradford home nearly every year until they passed away. He now spends time with his aunt and uncle, Nancy and Dick Dryden, who live in his grandparents’ former home.
“When I saw this opportunity come up, I saw it as an opportunity to connect with a community I know and love already,” Grow said of working with the Southern Tier Symphony.
He added, “I knew after that first rehearsal that we could get along … and make good music together.”
Even after living in Manhattan for 10 years, Grow said his roots in State College, Pa., mean he’s “still from a small town.”
“I even chose my neighborhood in Manhattan because there’s a park across the street and I can hear the crickets singing,” he said with a laugh.
Whitney said Grow’s connection to the area was a good addition to all the other things he brings to the table.
“I think with Ben’s knowledge of the area, he can bring more of an audience here,” she said.
While Whitney is excited for the future, Grow is the first conductor to replace her husband, John, the orchestra’s founder who passed away in 2014
“It’s going to be bittersweet for me … because it will close a chapter. But his vision he wanted the orchestra to continue past him,” she said. “ … It was always in John’s mind that this wasn’t his orchestra but the Southern Tier’s orchestra.”
Grow said rehearsals will start the week leading up to concert, which will have a program including Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, Dvorak’s Czech Suite and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, the Italian Symphony.
Grow said the program was “loosely showing composer’s reflection on place.” Performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Sept. 30 at Olean High School and 3 p.m. Oct. 1 at Bromeley Theater at the University of Pitt-Bradford. Grow will also give a pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m. at the Olean performance and 2:15 p.m. at the Bradford performance.
Grow said while there will be pre-concert lectures, it’s not necessarily about educating adult audiences — more like giving them background and having a dialogue.
“I think we want to show people things they didn’t know they liked, as well as give them some of the music and composers they already already know and love.”
