Our New Assistant Conductor!

After receiving 66 preliminary applications for the Assistant Conductor position, just 5 candidates made it through to the live auditions at Symphony Hall. These live auditions, held in late May, consisted of a rehearsal with the full Phoenix Symphony as well as an Education presentation.

After the dust had settled, The Phoenix Symphony appointed Joseph Young as its new Assistant Conductor.

A member of the American Conducting Fellows Program, a prestigious conductor training program of the League of the American Orchestras, Mr. Young comes to Phoenix from the Buffalo Philharmonic where he conducted many concerts including the Education, Family, Classics and Holiday series. Most recently, Mr. Young has been selected as one of eight participants of the International Jorma Panula Conducting Workshop in Porto, Portugal. With a bachelor's of music degree from the University of South Carolina, he finished his graduate studies at the Peabody Conservatory and earned an artist's diploma in 2009. Mr. Young has received numerous awards including the 2008 recipient of the Sir Georg Solti Foundation Career Grant for young conductors, and he was selected as a finalist for the Conductors Guild’s 2008 Thelma A. Robinson Award. His primary conducting teachers are Marin Alsop, Gustav Meier and Markand Thakar.

As The Phoenix Symphony’s Assistant Conductor, Mr. Young’s responsibilities will include serving as the cover conductor for Michael Christie and all guest conductors, to program, rehearse and conduct Family Series concerts as well as Symphony for the Schools and Classroom Concerts, and to program, rehearse and conduct special concerts such as fee engagements and community outreach concerts. This position also offers an exciting opportunity for mentorship with Michael Christie.

Mr. Young will succeed Benjamin Rous, the Symphony’s Assistant Conductor since the 2008/09 Season, as Mr. Rous has accepted the Associate Conductor position with the Virginia Symphony.