Lerner is new SASO leader

Lerner was officially named Tuesday night after members of the volunteer group overwhelming approved his nomination by the SASO Board of Directors. He was one of four finalists auditioning for the role throughout the 2007-08 season, which concludes with concerts June 1 and 8.

Lerner has big shoes to fill. He replaces Adam Boyles, who left last fall after two seasons to take over the Massachusetts Institute of Technology orchestra. Boyles is largely credited with elevating the ensemble's artistic level with challenging programming.

Lerner, who just completed his doctoral degree in conducting at the University of Arizona, has a broad résumé in conducting, with 21 years' experience leading choruses in Brazil and America. His orchestral conducting includes leading the Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra, Porto Alegre Chamber Orchestra, Tallahassee Youth Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Nacional de Valles and the orchestras at both the University of Arizona and Florida State University.

Lerner has led Reveille for five years, the last two full time as its artistic and executive director.

With the SASO job, Lerner said, he has resigned the Reveille executive director job but will continue leading the chorus.

SASO spokeswoman Patte Lazarus said Lerner will be paid $13,500 a season, roughly $6,000 more than the orchestra paid Boyles. The pay was increased after donors kicked in extra funding, she said.

Lazarus said about 50 to 60 people applied for the music director job last May. The Board of Directors whittled the list of candidates to 10 last summer before inviting four finalists to participate in auditions.

"Three of the four finalists were very, very close and had a lot of positive attributes that we thought worked very well for the orchestra," Lazarus said. "They all had good vision of where they thought the orchestra could go as far as artistic growth and community building."

Lazarus said Lerner stood out in part because of his ties to the Tucson community and because he lived here.

"Having a resident conductor works the best with our orchestra," she said.

Lerner, who has several guest-conducting gigs in Mexico City in the coming year, said his primary goal will be to grow the orchestra's audience and improve on the orchestra's artistic quality. "I want them to grow artistically, and I want them to do big pieces, like this Tchaikovsky that I did (in the audition)," he said.

Lerner already is at work crafting the group's 2008-09 season.

Meanwhile, Boyles will take his final bows with SASO when he leads it in the season-finale performances — June 1 in SaddleBrooke and June 8 at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church (see Aisle Seats, Page E6). During his SASO tenure, he performed Morton Gould's groundbreaking "Tap Dance Concerto" — possibly the first orchestra in Arizona to do so — and performed Dmitry Kabalevsky's "The Comedians" with choreographed computer graphics so that people who were hearing-impaired could see the music.