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.

One lucky person in Illinois hit the jackpot, winning $552 million in Tuesday night’s Mega Millions drawing.

The winner scored the Mega Millions jackpot on the lottery’s mobile app — making it the largest prize won by an online lottery player in the U.S.

The winning numbers were 19, 37, 40, 63, 69 and 17.

Tuesday night’s jackpot was $552 million, the winner can choose the cash option of $260 million, according to Mega Millions.

The winner is also now the second person to win a Mega Millions jackpot in Illinois in two years. Two years ago, two people won $1.337 billion, the largest prize ever won in Illinois, after purchasing a ticket at a Speedway convenience store in Des Plaines.

The overall odds of winning any Mega Millions prize are 1 in 24. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.

Drawings take place at 10 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays.

Touting investments in education and economic development, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the budget for the upcoming fiscal year on Wednesday.

The $53.1 billion budget contains much of the governor’s priorities including $50 million child tax credit —providing up to $300 per child under 12 — and $290 million to Home Illinois to work towards ending homelessness in Illinois. Another $400 million is dedicated for the second year of the Smart Start Illinois initiative, which aims to provide universal preschool access statewide by 2027, and $500 million to build a quantum computing campus.

“We started with our children and families focusing on the areas most essential to them to thrive like childcare, education, health care and housing,” said Pritzker during a bill signing ceremony in Chicago. “This budget was designed to make them more affordable and more accessible.”

The signing brought an end to months of negotiations among state lawmakers, which was held in delicate balance in the House last week over disagreements on a $1.1 billion tax plan needed to balance the budget.

That measure includes increases on the sports wagering and video gaming taxes, which will net the state an additional $235 million in revenues, in addition to an extended cap on corporate net operating losses to prevent what would have been a $526 million loss for the state.

More: Third time’s the charm: Illinois House sends $53.1 billion budget to Pritzker

Democrats have 78 members in the chamber but struggled to acquire the needed 60 votes for it to pass, finally breaking through on the third try just before 5 a.m. last Wednesday. Pritzker did not sign that bill on Wednesday but plans on doing so before the end of the month.

The concern among Republicans and some Democrats was the increased spending, Republicans particularly targeting the $182 million dedicated to provide shelter and other services to migrants. The idea of widespread cuts, as others like fellow Democrat Comptroller Susana Mendoza had suggested, was not supported by the governor. Altogether, the budget includes $75 million in cuts per House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch.

“This idea is not an idea that Democrats believe in — this idea that you can just go across the board and cut 5% of the budget and and not have a very deleterious effect on people across the state,” Pritzker said.

Fiscal year 2025 will start on July 1, 2024.

Contact Patrick M. Keck: 312-549-9340, pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter