‘A happy return:’ New music director of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra has ties to state

Taichi Fukumura, the assistant conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra who has directed and worked with orchestras in Chicago, has been named music director of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra after an international search.

The orchestra has home bases in Springfield and Bloomington-Normal.

One of four finalists to succeed Kenneth Lam, now the director of orchestral studies at the Tianjin Juilliard School and resident conductor of the Tianjin Juilliard Orchestra in China, Fukumura guest conducted the ISO’s “Fire & Fanfare” season-opening concert in October and the “Holiday Pops in the Heartland” concert in December.

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The selection as director, Fukumura admitted earlier this week, marked “a happy return (to Illinois).”

“What was most attractive is the organization and the people itself,” Fukumura added. “This is a very unique orchestra in that it has a very dynamic setup being a double home orchestra, both in Springfield and Bloomington-Normal.”

In Chicago, Fukumura was the assistant conductor of the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Chicago Philharmonic, while directing two youth orchestras at the Merit School of Music. He also conducted the Northwestern Medical Orchestra, made up of students, faculty, residents, researchers and staff members in the Northwestern medical community.

Fukumura joined the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra as its assistant conductor in 2022. He is the music director finalist for the Eugene (Ore.) Symphony, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and the Colorado Springs Philharmonic and will guest conduct each during the 2024-25 season.

A native of Tokyo who grew up in Boston and started his musical studies on the violin at age 3, Fukumura is acclaimed for his dynamic stage presence and musical finesse.

At the “Fire & Fanfare” concert, Fukumura led the Illinois Symphony Orchestra through Márquez’s “Danzón No. 2,” Shostakovich’s “First Cello Concerto” and Tchaikovsky’s “Fourth Symphony.”

Springfield concertgoers, he said, can expect a mixture of traditional works and newly written works or pieces the orchestra has never played before.

“I think longtime concertgoers of the Illinois Symphony will really find the season special and it’s going to be an attractive season for newcomers as well,” Fukumura said. “My goal is to really bring everybody in the room together and make an impact, create an evening of experience. I do that in many ways. I do speak with the audience and share with them what it is we love about what we do, why we chose to perform what we chose and why we feel it is important for people to hear it is what we do.”

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Post-pandemic concertgoers, Fukumura said, are choosier about what they are going out for and are more likely to show up to something they know is going to be an enjoyable experience.

“I think that is something we should keep in mind as performers and presenters, that every event we put together matters because what that experience felt like is going to be the determining factor for people to return in the future,” he said.

The challenge now, Orthmann added, is “how can we make (the orchestra) relevant and important in the communities.”

Immediate tasks at hand for Fukumura are filling a number of orchestra players’ seats and programming for the upcoming season which starts Oct. 18.

“Both of those have been fun and fruitful discussions,” Fukumura said. “They are just the first steps. We are looking years down the road of how to do we get there? How do we make sure this orchestra is thriving and growing and doing very, very well in years to come?”

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.