Hartford Symphony Orchestra Music Director to Step Down

Carolyn Kuan will depart in the Spring of 2027 following 16 seasons in the role

In 2011, Carolyn Kuan joined the Hartford Symphony Orchestra (HSO) in Connecticut as its 10th music director for an initial three years. Her contract has since been extended several times in the last decade. 

Her latest contract with the orchestra is from the current season through the 2026/27 season, when she will have completed her 16th season with the HSO. The search for her successor at HSO will begin soon, with Kuan also supporting the search process and transition period.

Kuan is the first woman and the youngest person to be the music director for HSO, reported the Hartford Courant. Among her achievements with the orchestra are championing underappreciated Black and female composers, conducting world premieres, and creating programs highlighting contemporary works alongside classics in innovative ways.

She also saw HSO through challenges brought by the pandemic as well as the years-long negotiations between the musicians’ union and HSO management, which ended with a new contract in 2023.

Outside of her work with the HSO, Kuan has led the world premieres of operas based on David Henry Hwang’s play “M. Butterfly” and the historic Stonewall Riots.

In 2003, she became the first woman to receive the Herbert von Karajan Conducting Fellowship, which led to her residency at the 2004 Salzburg Festival. She was also the inaugural winner of the Taki Concordia Fellowship and has received honors from the Women’s Philharmonic, Conductors Guild, and Susan W. Rose Fund for Music.

Hailing from Taiwan, Kuan was 14 when she moved to the US, where she studied at Smith College, the University of Illinois, and the Peabody Conservatory.

“HSO has been an incredibly important part of my life and it is a privilege to work with our amazing musicians, our Board and staff, and this incredible community,” Kuan said during her last contract extension. “Being able to contribute to families, students, friends, individuals coming together to share moments of joy, discoveries and transcendence is such an inspiration to me.”