by Daniel Hathaway

Ohio Light Opera music director Michael Borowitz, who spends most of the year in Baton Rouge as assistant professor of opera at Louisiana State University, rejoined the Wooster company last summer. “I had taken a hiatus for a few years, and so this is my second year back,” he told me in a telephone conversation. He’s very pleased about that.

“The OLO Orchestra arrived yesterday, and I have to say that based on our auditions this year, which were really tremendous, we have some really fine artists who love to play in the pit. Some of them prefer playing in symphony orchestras, but the majority of our players here are really hungry to play all of these pit jobs,” Borowitz said. “And they love the festival atmosphere — being able to play Camelot in the afternoon, and then Orpheus in the Underworld in the evening. They like that challenge. I’m excited. I think it’s a good group of people.”

Borowitz added that the OLO Orchestra has built an extensive national reputation that results in referrals from the players’ teachers, many of whom have performed with the ensemble before. [Read more…]