Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Announces the Appointment of Eight New Musicians for the 2024-25 Season
New Appointments in Violin, Cello, Horn and Trombone Sections
CINCINNATI, OH (September 9, 2024)—The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announced today the appointment of eight new musicians as it heads into the 2024-25 season. Following extensive auditions drawing from a competitive national applicant pool, the following musicians won positions with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra: David Alexander, Acting Associate Principal Horn (one-year contract); Rose Brown, Section Violin; Elizabeth Furuta, Section Violin; Lachezar Kostov, Associate Principal Cello; Joseph Ohkubo, Section Violin; Noah Roper, Bass Trombone; Jonathan Yi, Section Violin; and Tianlu (Jerry) Xu, Section Cello.
“Our exceptional musicians are at the center of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s mission, vision, and service to the community,” said President & CEO of the CSO Jonathan Martin. “We’re thrilled to welcome David, Rose, Elizabeth, Lachezar, Joseph, Noah, Jonathan and Tianlu to the CSO family as we prepare for the 2024-25 season and launch of Cristian Măcelaru’s tenure as Music Director of our Orchestra in 2025.”
The musicians join the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as it begins a new five-year collective bargaining agreement starting September 9, 2024. The new agreement cements the CSO’s place in the top 10 American orchestras in terms of competitive salaries for its musicians; achieves improvements to scheduling parameters; and, in alignment with the CSO’s ongoing commitment to DE&I, adopts industry-leading audition and tenure practices that focus on transparency, equity and support mechanisms, as recommended by the National Alliance for Audition Support (NAAS) and the Black Orchestral Network.
The Orchestra’s 2024-25 season begins with John Legend: A Night of Songs and Stories with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra on Tuesday, September 10 at Riverbend Music Center. The CSO’s first subscription concert, Mahler Symphony No. 1, will take place September 27 & 28 at Music Hall. Music Director Designate Cristian Măcelaru returns to conduct the CSO in Dvořák New World Symphony on February 8 & 9, 2025. A full listing of concerts for the 2024-25 season can be found at cincinnatisymphony.org.
NEW MUSICIAN BIOGRAPHIES
David Alexander, Acting Associate Principal Horn
Ellen A. & Richard C. Berghamer Chair
David Alexander joins the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as acting Associate Principal horn for the 2024–25 season. He has previously performed with ensembles across the country, including the New World Symphony and the Houston Symphony, and as acting second horn with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Recent summers have taken him to festivals such as Music Academy of the West, Yellow Barn Music Festival, Bowdoin International Chamber Music Festival, and the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. Alexander holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Julie Landsman, Jennifer Montone and Todd Williams and was a proud recipient of the school’s Kovner Fellowship. He eagerly begins his own teaching career this fall as adjunct faculty at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Rose Brown, Violin
Rose Brown joins the second violin section of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in the 2024-25 season. Brown previously served as an acting member of the CSO from 2022 to 2024 and regularly performs with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She earned degrees in violin performance from Indiana University (BM) and the University of Michigan (MM), studying with Mimi Zweig and Danielle Belen, respectively. Brown has been a member of numerous regional orchestras and as a chamber musician has performed around the world, from South America to South Korea to Carnegie Hall to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she grew up.
Elizabeth Furuta, Violin
Elizabeth Furuta began playing the violin at age four after seeing the Tokyo String Quartet on Sesame Street. Prior to joining the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, she served as second associate concertmaster of the Omaha Symphony and as a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and as the musical guest on an episode of NPR's Says You. Furuta holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received the Dr. Bennett Levine Memorial Award in Chamber Music. Her primary teachers include William Preucil, David Updegraff and the Cavani String Quartet.
Lachezar Kostov, Associate Principal Cello
Ona Hixson Dater Chair
Formerly associate principal cellist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Lachezar Kostov has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Leipzig Gewandhaus and Oji Hall in Tokyo. Kostov studied cello at the National Conservatory in Sofia, Bulgaria and furthered his education at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and at Yale and Rice universities. Lachezar has released two critically acclaimed CDs, Nikolay Roslavets: Works for Cello and Piano (Naxos) and Transcriptions and Paraphrases for Cello and Piano (Navona Records). During the summer, he is a frequent guest artist at festivals such as the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, Texas Music Festival, Lakes Area Music Festival and Cactus Pear Festival in San Antonio. A Larsen Strings Artist, Kostov exclusively uses the company’s new Il Cannone cello strings.
Joseph Ohkubo, Violin
Violinist Joseph Ohkubo began his musical studies at age 8 in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Prior to joining the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, he was an acting member of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Ohkubo also served as associate concertmaster of the Terre Haute Symphony, performed regularly with the Louisville Orchestra and made appearances at the Verbier Festival, Music Masters Course Japan, Colorado College Music Festival and Kent Blossom Music Festival (Kent State University). Ohkubo received his bachelor's degree from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in 2016. His primary teachers include Mauricio Fuks, Mimi Zweig and Peter McHugh. In his free time, Ohkubo enjoys running, cooking, baking and eating.
Noah Roper, Bass Trombone
Noah Roper, who hails from Aledo, Texas, began serving as bass trombonist for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in December 2023. Prior to joining the CSO, Roper was the bass trombone fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida from 2020 to 2023. Roper has also performed with the London, San Francisco and Atlanta symphony orchestras, among others, and at the Cabrillo Contemporary Music Festival in the summer of 2024.
Jonathan Yi, Violin
Violinist Jonathan Yi discovered his love for the violin while studying with Peter McHugh and playing in orchestras and chamber ensembles in Louisville, Kentucky. In 2014, he performed the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Louisville Orchestra. He went on to study at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University (IU), where he completed his bachelor’s degree with Mimi Zweig and his master’s degree with Alexander Kerr. In 2021, he performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the IU Chamber Orchestra as winner of its concerto competition. He has participated in the New York String Orchestra Seminar, Music Academy of the West and Aspen Music Festival, and, since 2022, he has been a member of the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra, where he was acting assistant concertmaster for the 2023 season.
Tianlu (Jerry) Xu, Cello
Tianlu (Jerry) Xu began his musical journey in Shanghai, studying under Professor Dahai Liu at the primary and middle schools affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. After coming to the U.S., he completed high school at Interlochen Arts Academy and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in cello performance from the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Clive Greensmith, Ben Hong, Hans Jørgen Jensen and Ronald Leonard. Xu has performed as a soloist with several orchestras, including the Shanghai Opera Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Conservatory of Music Youth Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai City Symphony Orchestra, Wuhan Orchestra and Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra. Immediately following his graduation from Colburn, he was appointed third chair cellist of the Pacific Symphony for the 2023-24 season by conductor Carl St. Clair, before joining the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he had the pleasure of performing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra during the summer of 2024.