New director of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra is busy preparing for the start of the season

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The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra has a new executive director, and Garry Frederickson has been very busy during his short shift.

“This role happened quite quickly,” Frederickson said. “I kind of drink from a fire hose. There is a lot to do before the first gig.

Former executive director Hope Quarles moved to Anchorage, Alaska to take a position with the Alaska Performing Arts Center, which left the symphony orchestra in search of a replacement just weeks before the The season opens on September 25, said Symphony Orchestra Board Chairman Kim Streib.

“It was September 1,” she said. “There wasn’t much time to start the season, and we’re very, very lucky to have (Frederickson).

A longtime musician, Frederickson moved to the Colorado area about a year ago and quickly became familiar with the area’s music scene.

“I discovered the symphony and some opportunities to work with them,” he said. “I contacted them and they asked me to join the board. Then the opportunity arose that I could contribute as an executive director.

He also takes on the role of conductor, a dual role that Quarles also played.

Frederickson grew up as a pianist and trumpeter, he said.

“I started playing church in college, maybe even earlier,” he said. “I ended up majoring in music education at the University of Illinois. … I really focused on conducting, it was kind of my thing.

He spent a few years as a high school conductor – with his small school group of 350 students winning the University of Illinois harmony orchestra competition one of those years – before to realize that being a high school conductor wasn’t really what it took. he wanted to make his life.

This sent Frederickson back to school, where he earned a master’s degree in business management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

He then worked for Hewlett-Packard in product management and consulting, leading the development and implementation of software for clients such as GM and Wells Fargo.

Musically, Frederickson studied and played the piano – by invitation – at the Van Cliburn Institute in Texas and continues to play the piano. Rather than being a study at opposite poles, the mixture of music and technology in his life has been beneficial in both areas, he said.

“A solid musical background is probably the best (education to have) to be a computer scientist, especially in software gaming,” he said. “All of my main software architects have a solid musical background. Playing a musical instrument when you are young simultaneously exercises more parts of your brain than anything else. You can see how things relate and work better together.

Its interest in music education and its lifelong value is not lost in a symphony that hosts an annual children’s concert to introduce school-aged children to music they might not otherwise have access to. And the interest of the symphony for children is not lost on Frederickson, he said.

“One of the great values ​​of the Jacksonville Symphony is that it has a long history of providing an educational program for children,” he said.

Although he cites a broader engagement between the symphony and the community as one of his goals as executive director, that is not the immediate task at hand, he said.

“I’ve been in the job for two and a half weeks,” he said. “For the moment, the number one objective is to get things moving this season, to do these concerts. … This is really Job 1 for the first month.

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