Elizabeth Schulze, music director and conductor of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, will be the next music director/conductor of the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra.

Dan Williams, president-elect of the Flagstaff Symphony Association Board of Directors, made the announcement from the stage of Ardrey Auditorium before Friday's performance of Benjamin Britten's monumental "War Requiem."

"We're thrilled to have Elizabeth coming on board," said Tonya Watson, FSO executive director, in a phone interview Friday afternoon. "She'll be a tremendous asset to the orchestra and to our community. "She'll definitely add to FSO's bright future."

Williams was chair of the search committee and had worked for almost two years to find a replacement for Randall Craig Fleischer, who gave up the top job at the end of last season.

FOUR TRY FOR SPOT

Each of the four candidates — Schulze, Peter Jaffe, Darryl One and Alexander Platt — were guest conductors for a concert in the FSO season and also presented educational programs in local schools.

The "Final Four" were selected from a field of more than 130 exceptionally talented applicants.

In the first concert of last season, Schulze was paired with composer and trombonist, Chris Brubeck, in her Sept. 14, 2007 guest appearance with FSO.

During their visits, candidates were evaluated by the orchestra members, the FSO board and the audience.

Schulze will assume the position commencing with the 2008-2009 season. Her first performance will be Sept. 18, when Steven Moeckel, violinist and concert master for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, will play the "Violin Concerto in D-minor" by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

Moeckel was the only American to qualify for the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki, Finland.

A framework for the season has been worked out by the FSO program committee and solo artists booked for each concert, Watson said.

"Elizabeth will come in and flesh out each concert," Watson added. "It will give her a chance to put her stamp on things. It looks like she's going to have a really strong staff with which to work."

Audiences at the "War Requiem" concert were given brochures outlining the soloist lineup, and information will appear on the FSO Web site next week at www.flagstaffsymphony.org.

AT HOME IN BALTIMORE

Schulze lives in Western Maryland, where she lives "on my own," she said in a Wednesday e-mail interview. She was born in Evanston, Ill., and grew up in Ann Arbor, Mich., where her parents were both professors of English literature at local universities

"I am thrilled to be named the next music director of the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra," Schulze said. "I'm looking forward to being part of Flagstaff's vibrant community. In fact, the several opportunities I had to meet the upbeat, creative and hardworking citizens of Flagstaff during my audition week convinced me that this was a place in which I could thrive and make a contribution."

She attended Interlochen Arts Academy as a high school student, majoring in violin and academics and graduated from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania with an A.B. cum laude in philosophy, she said in her biographical statement. She attended graduate school for masters and doctoral work at SUNY at Stony Brook in New York and Northwestern University in Illinois, respectively.

Schulze also attended the Aspen Music School and won the first conducting prize in 1992. She was also a conducting fellow at the esteemed Tanglewood Music School, where she studied with Seiji Ozawa, Gustave Meier and Leonard Bernstein.

"My hope for the orchestra is that we continue to grow our roots deep into the community, becoming an essential part of its cultural life," she continued via e-mail. "I also plan to strongly advocate growth in the area of our educational outreach programming to young people."

Betsey Bruner can be reached at 556-2255 or by e-mail at bbruner@azdailysun.com.