BANGOR, Maine - The Bangor Symphony Orchestra announced Thursday Lucas Richman has been named the organization's music director and conductor, the 10th in the 114-year history of the BSO.

Richman, who currently serves as the music director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in Tennessee, will make his first appearance in his new position on October 3 when the BSO kicks off its 115th season with a concert called "Welcome Lucas" and featuring music by composers Brahms, Copland and Bernstein.

"Lucas brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, and an infectious enthusiasm for his craft," said Sam Lanham, the president of the Bangor Symphony's board of directors. "We're looking forward to getting to know him during the upcoming season."

A native of California, Richman has twice previously conducted the BSO. He first led the symphony in January 2009, when the BSO returned to the University of Maine’s Collins Center for the Arts after a nearly two-year renovation. Richman returned in September 2009 to conduct as part of the search process for the BSO's new music director and conductor.

"I am honored and delighted to have been chosen for this position with the BSO and I am looking forward to working with its spectacular musicians," Richman said. "It is an exciting prospect for me to work in a community that has embraced and supported this orchestra for an extraordinary 114 years."

Richman will conduct four of the BSO's five scheduled Masterworks concerts for the 2010-11 season, the highlights of which will include guest soloists Stefan Jackiw and Martina Filjak, the start of a Beethoven cycle, and a work composed by Richman himself.

In addition to the season-opener, the BSO will play under Richman's baton in its Jan. 16 concert, "Romantic Rachmaninoff," which will feature 2009 Cleveland International Piano competition winner Filjak; the March 13 concert, "Orchestral Showcase" which includes Beethoven’s sweeping Second Symphony; and the April 10 concert, "Hymns and Psalms," during which the BSO will play with the University of Maine singers and Oratorio Society and also perform Richman’s own gospel-inspired celebration of David’s Psalms.

Due to a prior commitment, Richman will not conduct the Nov. 14 concert, "Dvorak and Sibelius," featuring violinist Jackiw. The Bangor Symphony will instead play under the baton of guest conductor Edward Cumming, who is the music director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Now entering his eighth season as music director in Knoxville, Richman was formerly the assistant and resident conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the assistant conductor for the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. In addition to serving last year as a guest conductor for the Bangor Symphony, Richman has guest-conducted orchestras all over the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, the SWR Radio Orchestra of Kaiserslautern (Germany), the Tiroler Kammerorchester InnStrumenti (Austria) and the Zagreb Philharmonic (Croatia).

For the past decade, Richman collaborated with numerous film composers as their conductor, recording scores for such films as the Academy Award-nominated The Village (with violinist, Hilary Hahn), As Good As It Gets, Face/Off, Se7en, Breakdown, The Manchurian Candidate and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.

Richman also toured with Germany's Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra, for which he was one of four conductors from around the world selected by Leonard Bernstein to share the maestro’s podium for concerts presented in London and Moscow.

He received a Master of Music in orchestral conducting from the University of Southern California, where he was a student of Daniel Lewis.

"I'm eager to begin working with Lucas," said David Whitehill, the BSO's executive director. "He has a very warm and generous personality, along with great musical knowledge and command. I know our orchestra, under Lucas, will respect the traditions of the past but hold the possibility of new beginnings."

Richman was one of four finalists the BSO considered for its music director and conductor position. The other three were Robert Franz, Michael Butterman and David Itkin. A fifth finalist, David Amado, withdrew from consideration.

The BSO received nearly 200 applicants from 37 states and 10 countries.

"We had a very competitive applicant pool and amazing finalists, but in the end, Lucas rose to the top as the right person for the right moment," said Joyce Clark-Sarnacki, chair of the search committee and vice president of the BSO's board of directors. "He impressed the search committee, our musicians and our patrons all the way through the process and will be a wonderful fit."

Richman replaces former music director and conductor Xiao Lu-Li, who resigned in October 2008.
In order to welcome Richman and celebrate the arrival of its new music director, the Bangor Symphony is offering new and former subscribers 50 percent off the Masterworks series. The offer is open to new subscribers, including those who have not subscribed since the BSO's 2008-09 season.

"We're hoping people will take us up on the offer in order to get to know our new music director and hear the orchestra," Whitehill said.

The Bangor Symphony will continue its foray into pops programming on March 26 with Spectrum, a male vocal quarter acclaimed for its renditions of Motown and R&B classics such as "My Girl," "Under the Boardwalk," and "Soul Man." Last year, the BSO's partnership with the Collins Center which brought Beatles tribute group Classical Mystery Tour resulted in a sold-out show.

In addition to the five classical concerts, the BSO will once again in December 2010 highlight three performances of The Nutcracker, along with the Robinson Ballet and the Bangor Area Children's Choir. The performances will be held Dec. 18 and 19. Guest conductor Jacomo Rafael Bairos will return to Bangor for the second straight year in order to lead BSO.

Bangor Symphony Orchestra season subscriptions are available by calling the Collins Center for the Arts box office at 207-581-1755 or 1-800-622-TIXX or online at www.bangorsymphony.com.