Adrian Symphony Orchestra

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Southern California News Group

Bruce Kiesling (pictured left), who has served for the past two years as Assistant Conductor of the Pasadena Symphony and music director of the Pasadena Youth Symphony, has been named music director of the Adrian (MI) Symphony. His appointment takes effect July 1.

Kiesling succeeds John Thomas Dodson, who stepped down at the end of the ASO’s 2014-15 season after a 15-year-tenure. Kiesling is just the fourth music director in the orchestra’s 35-year-history. Kiesling’s appointment came after an extensive search and an appearance with the orchestra in April.

Adrian is a town of nearly 22,000 people near the southern border of the state, about 40 miles south of Ann Arbor and 75 miles southwest of Detroit. The orchestra’s concerts take place in Dawson Auditorium in the campus of Adrian College. For Kiesling, this is something of a homecoming; he holds a graduate degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Kiesling, who calls himself “schizo-musical,” will lead a season of four classical concerts. Last season the orchestra also played three Pops concerts had presented a brass ensemble recital, but the orchestra’s media release made no mention of those activities.

In addition to his Pasadena Symphony duties, Kiesling currently serves as Music Director of the Tulare County Symphony. For five years, he conducted the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA) for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he led multiple orchestras of different levels including most of the 700 students at YOLA’s three sites. YOLA is Gustavo Dudamel’s signature music education program, which brings free-of-charge musical opportunities to underserved youth in Los Angeles.

Kiesling also leads the Orchestra and Opera at the University of California Santa Cruz. In an Adrian Daily Telegram article, Kiesling said that he will be “dialing back” his other orchestral commitments in order to spend the kind of time with the ASO that he knows is vital. “It’s important to me to be there enough to really hear the community,” he said. What that means for Pasadena is unclear.

In addition to his conducting, one thing about Kiesling that the Adrian community will come to love is his pre-concert lectures. He’s one of the best I’ve heard about engaging audiences in this often-tricky art.

Read the Adrian Symphony Orchestra’s media release HERE.

Read the complete Daily Telegram article HERE.
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