Syracuse Orchestra searches for new music director

Current director, Loh, to leave in 2025

SYRACUSE — The board of directors of the Syracuse Orchestra says it has started initial discussions about the upcoming search for the orchestra’s next music director. Lawrence Loh, the current music director, will conclude his tenure with the organization at the end of the 2024-25 season, per a March 27 announcement. His departure coincides with the end of his current contract. He was recently named music director of the Waco Symphony Orchestra in Waco, Texas. Pamela Murchison, executive director of the Syracuse Orchestra, said Loh led the orchestra through a “most difficult time.” “Larry’s leadership and generosity of spirit have led us through many amazing musical moments, and through the ever-changing landscape of the pandemic,” Murchison said in the announcement. “His flexibility and collaborative nature have kept The Syracuse Orchestra playing, enabling us to connect with our community while many orchestras went silent in 2020.” Loh joined the orchestra in 2014 as its first music director when it was known as Symphoria. Loh previously held major conducting positions with the Pittsburgh Symphony, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, Syracuse Opera, Pittsburgh Youth Symphony, Dallas Symphony, and the Colorado Symphony. “My time with The Syracuse Orchestra as its first music director will remain one of the most important and gratifying positions of my career,” Loh said in the announcement. “I’m so fond of the musicians in the orchestra, and my family and I will always think of Central New York as a very special place. I look forward to a celebratory and bittersweet final season in 24-25!” The 2024-25 season will be a “celebration” of Loh’s 11 years leading the Syracuse Orchestra, first as music director designate then 10 years as music director, Mary Ann Tyszko, president of the Syracuse Orchestra’s board of directors, said. The Syracuse Orchestra is a nonprofit formed in 2012 as a musician-led cooperative orchestra, one of only two in the U.S.