© 2024 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
The KPAC Blog features classical music news, reviews, and analysis from South Texas and around the world.

Akiko Fujimoto Is Back In South Texas... Kind Of

Josh Kohanek
Akiko Fujimoto is the associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. She was also recently appointed as the music director for the Mid-Texas Symphony

The Mid-Texas Symphony is presenting its new conductor to the communities it serves. Her name is Akiko Fujimoto, and you may remember her.

"I was the associate conductor of the San Antonio Symphony for five years.  So yes!" she said.

She's been gone from the Alamo City for a couple of years.

Credit Eric Green
Akiko Fujimoto

"I'm finishing up my second season as the Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra,” Fujimoto said. “And I've been living in Minneapolis for the last two years since I left San Antonio.” 

She said there's a lot more going on in Minneapolis than blizzards and long winters.  

"There is an abundance of culture. There are a symphonic choral music great theater scene,” she said. “And yeah it's just a really great place to live and part of that is that there's a lot of great culture there."

That said, she's back in South Texas, at least for a time.

 

"I've just been appointed the music director of the Mid-Texas Symphony," she said. 

Unlike most symphony orchestras, the Mid-Texas Symphony isn't bound to one city. They serve both New Braunfels and Seguin, and communities around those cities. There aren’t enough musicians for a symphony in those cities, but there are nearby.

"The musicians hail from San Antonio and Austin symphonies as well as many other orchestras in the region,” Fujimoto said. “And obviously I'll be commuting from Minnesota and I'll be in residence the week of the concerts."

She has no plans to move back at this point, as her position with the Minnesota Symphony is her primary work. She’s here now to hit the streets in New Braunfels and Seguin, getting to all those involved. She said the sum of all the visits will help her plot the best way forward for the orchestra.

"I'm about to head up to those two cities and start a tour of meet and greets and listening to the leaders in the community and members of the orchestra board and staff and musicians and just get to know you kind of week," she said.

Her first public concert with the Mid-Texas Symphony is on September 15 at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin. 

 

Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii