For the past year, musicians, board members, and staff have worked collaboratively to identify a conductor who will uphold the Canton Symphony Orchestra’s mission both on stage at Umstattd Hall and throughout the community. The Music Director Search Committee reviewed over 120 applications from around the world and through many hours of discussion, evaluation, and interviews selected these five conductors.
These five candidates will be with us next season to conduct a MasterWorks concert and spend time in our community. This will give you all a chance to see them conduct and make music with our wonderful musicians, as well as hear their stories, ideas, and hopes for the future.
We look forward with great excitement to the 2026–2027 season, featuring community collaborations, beloved repertoire, and new artistic perspectives. From all of us: musicians, volunteers, board, sponsors, contributors, and administration – we welcome you to fully experience your CSO as we look to a vibrant, evolving future.
music director finalists
Yue Bao
Yue Bao is a highly regarded conductor recognized for her clarity, musical integrity, and communicative leadership. The New York Times has called her ‘a major presence.’ Described by Classical MPR as having “delivered this evening,” Bao brings a focused yet elegant podium presence that consistently inspires orchestras to play with energy and precision. Bachtrack has praised her “graceful and elegant economy of movement,” noting the sense of lively cheerfulness she transmits to the ensemble.
Bao made her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut at the Ravinia Festival in 2021 and has since appeared with major orchestras across North America and Europe. In the current season, she returns to Munich to conduct the Munich Symphony Orchestra, leads the Calgary Philharmonic, and makes her debut with the Nuremberg Symfoniker. Additional engagements include the Santa Rosa Symphony and the Oviedo Filarmonía.
Her recent and past collaborations include the San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Bao has worked with distinguished soloists including Hélène Grimaud, Lang Lang, Jan Vogler, Vadim Gluzman, Bomsori Kim, Pablo Ferrández, Hera Hyesang Park, and Jeneba Kanneh-Mason.
Equally at home in symphonic and operatic repertoire, Bao has conducted works ranging from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Bizet’s Carmen to Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny: Ein Songspiel and Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium. Her operatic experience informs a collaborative, narrative-driven approach to orchestral programming and rehearsal.
Bao served as the Ting Tsung and Wei Fung Chao Foundation Assistant Conductor at the Houston Symphony, where she made her subscription debut on the opening night of the 2020–21 season and led performances at Jones Hall and the orchestra’s summer concert series at Miller Outdoor Theatre. She has worked extensively throughout the United States and internationally and is recognized for her ability to build strong artistic relationships with musicians and institutions alike.
Mélisse Brunet
Renowned as a conductor of “uncommon emotional intensity” (Marie-Celine) and a “force at the podium” (Eugene Scene), American conductor Mélisse Brunet is a native of Paris, France with an active career on both sides of the Atlantic. In July 2022, she became the fifth Music Director of the Lexington Philharmonic, and the first woman to hold the position. She is also in her sixth season as the Music Director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic.
Brunet is one of the five conductors featured in the documentary “Maestra” by the Director Maggie Contreras and produced by David Letterman and Melanie Miller (“Navalny”) – now available on Netflix. “Maestra” garnered 2nd place and the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary.
The 2025/26 season features Brunet’s Carnegie Hall debut in a program of new works leading the American Composers Orchestra. Other upcoming highlights include performances with the Louisville Orchestra, Sacramento Philharmonic, Charlottesville Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, and Sarasota Orchestra. Recent engagements include those with the Nashville Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Wintergreen Music Festival, New Hampshire Music Festival, Carmel Symphony, Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, the Eugene Symphony, the West Virginia Symphony, and the Orchestre National Avignon-Provence (France).
As a dynamic advocate of contemporary music, Brunet has collaborated with composers such as Shawn Okpebholo, Brittany J Green, Mary D. Watkins, Raven Chacon, T.J. Cole, Steven Stucky, Michael Daugherty, Shulamit Ran, and Jennifer Higdon, among others. She holds diplomas from the Paris Conservatory, the Université la Sorbonne, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Doctorate in conducting from the University of Michigan.
Austin Chanu
Hailed as “one of the great talents in the USA at the moment” by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Brazilian-American conductor Austin Chanu has earned recognition as a three time recipient of the Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation U.S., and as the third prize and orchestra prize winner in the Korean National Symphony Orchestra International Conducting Competition.
Austin recently completed his tenure as the Assistant Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, where he assisted Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In the 25-26 season, Austin will make debuts with The Syracuse Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Johns Creek Symphony Orchestra. He has also been named a finalist in The Mahler Competition 2026 and will compete in June conducting the Bamberger Symphoniker. In recent seasons, he has appeared as a guest conductor with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica Banatul Timișoara, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Omaha Symphony, and Butler County Symphony Orchestra.
Austin has a passion for contemporary music, stemming from his own background as a composer. He served as a teaching artist and conductor for the LA Philharmonic Association’s Associate Composer Program, as well as a Conducting Fellow at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, where he studied with conductor Cristian Măcelaru. Previously, Austin was Music Director for the Los Angeles Music and Art School, where he conducted and developed the artistic direction for the youth orchestra, choirs, and jazz band. Austin found it rewarding to draw on his Latino heritage to foster representation for the predominantly Latinx students and families in the program through repertoire selection.
Austin received a B.M. in Music Composition from the USC Thornton School of Music, graduating Magna cum Laude. He also graduated from the Eastman School of Music with an M.M. and DMA in Orchestral Conducting.
Jacob Joyce
Currently serving as the Associate Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Jacob Joyce, age 33, is quickly gaining recognition as a dynamic and innovative presence on the podium. Joyce also serves as the Music Director of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra and previously served as the Resident Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Assistant Conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony. He has made his debut with several American orchestras in past seasons, including the Detroit, St. Louis, Houston, Colorado, Kansas City, Nashville, Baltimore, and Florida symphonies. Joyce also has an active European career, conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, the NDR-Sinfonieorchester, the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, the Orchestra Philharmonique Royal de Liège, and the Frankfurt Museumsorchester in recent seasons.
Joyce studied Orchestral Conducting with Hugh Wolff at the New England Conservatory, with additional study at Tanglewood and the Aspen Music Festival. In recognition of his work, Joyce was awarded the Robert Spano Conducting Prize at Aspen, was a semifinalist in the LSO Donatella Flick Conducting Competition and the Solti International Conducting Competition, and was awarded a Solti Career Assistance Award in 2020. Joyce graduated from Yale College in 2014, with a B.A. in Music and Economics. He is also an accomplished violinist, having performed with several orchestras across the United States, and is the host and creator of the podcast Attention to Detail: The Classical Music Listening Guide, which provides people of all backgrounds with basic techniques for listening to classical music.
Wesley Schulz
Wesley Schulz is widely recognized for his superb programming and spirited yet heartfelt music making with orchestras. At home with masterworks, contemporary music as well as pops, the Cultural Voice of North Carolina deems Schulz’s conducting “spectacular.” Schulz is Music Director and Conductor of the Auburn Symphony Orchestra (WA) and Principal Guest Conductor of the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Additionally, Schulz was the Associate Conductor of the North Carolina Symphony, a Conducting Fellow at the Seattle Symphony, Assistant Conductor of the Britt Festival Orchestra, and Education and Family Conductor for the Austin Symphony Orchestra.
Schulz is regularly on the podium with orchestras across the Pacific Northwest. As a guest conductor, he has appeared with the Seattle, Utah, Austin, Tallahassee, Canton, Williamsburg, Greenville, Richmond (IN), Waco, and Bozeman Symphony Orchestras among many others. Schulz has collaborated with some of the most dynamic musical artists of our time including Tessa Lark, Leslie Odom Jr, John Williams, Philippe Quint, Bella Hristova, Rachel Lee Priday, Richard Lin, Pink Martini, Randall Goosby, Cirque de la Symphonie, Amos Lee, and many more. At the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Schulz leads annual performances of The Nutcracker and has also shared a run of performances of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.
Schulz graduated magna cum laude with Bachelor degrees in Percussion Performance and Music Education from Ball State University and Doctorate and Master’s degrees in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Texas at Austin. When not on the podium, Schulz enjoys CrossFit, snowboarding, cooking, and playing endless fetch with his two dogs, Chewbacca and Han Solo.