Valentina Peleggi (Photo by Bo Lutoslawski)
She came to the right place.
The Richmond Symphony today announced the selection of Valentina Peleggi as its new music director beginning July 1. The announcement follows a two-year search to replace former Music Director Steven Smith, who stepped down at the end of the 2018-19 season after a decade of service. Peleggi is the symphony’s sixth music director and the first woman in the position.
Peleggi spent two weeks with the organization in early March as one of five final candidates to vie for the role. In an interview last fall before visiting Richmond, she said she was looking forward to tasting our ciders and beers and acknowledged a fondness for the work of Edgar Allan Poe, “So a visit to his museum is a must for me,” she said at the time.
Peleggi will, however, be busy. For the 2020-21 season she will conduct 10 weeks of concerts beginning with a “Big Tent” open-air community festival that leads into four Masterworks concert weeks and chamber orchestra concerts in the Symphony’s Rush Hour and Metro Series.
A native of Florence, Italy, she is the first Italian woman to enter the conducting program at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she recently received the title of associate.
In an October interview she said she discovered the course of her life when singing with a children’s choir the massive Carl Orff piece “Carmina Burana,” under the direction of Zubin Mehta. The emotional impact of the full orchestral sound matched to the voices momentarily took her own away. Mehta’s reassuring smile and his baton brought Peleggi back to herself, and she recalls, “I felt part of something bigger where everyone was connected and loved. It was so beautiful, strong and inspiring that in my heart I promised: This is my dream!”
She’s previously conducted with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Orchestra of Wales, Norrkoping Symphony (Sweden), Orchestra della Toscana and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She’s soon to release her first CD through the Naxos label.
