SC Philharmonic director taking on new role but keeping post here

The music director of the S.C. Philharmonic is taking on another new post – in addition to his role here in the capital city.

Morihiko Nakahara has been selected as assistant professor and director of orchestral studies at UMass Amherst, where he will be in charge of conducting the school’s Symphony Orchestra, according to a story posted this week by the school.

“They hired him for the position because of his experience,” Rhonda Hunsinger, the S.C. Philharmonic’s executive director, said Wednesday.

Nakahara has been with the S.C. Philharmonic since 2008, splitting his time as resident conductor with the Spokane Symphony Orchestra. He previously served as music director of the Holland Symphony Orchestra in Michigan and taught at Eastern Washington University and Andrews University, according to the UMass Amherst report.

In his time here, Nakahara has taken the S.C. Philharmonic to “a new level in community outreach and exciting programming,” Hunsinger said Wednesday.

He has collaborated with a range of popular musicians, among them Chris Botti, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones, Brandi Carlile, Pink Martini, Sergio Mendes, and others. That kind of work, along with annual events like “Beethoven and Blue Jeans” – and the upcoming “Star Wars Musiclipse” on Aug. 20, coinciding with the next day’s total eclipse – are attracting broad audience interest.

At the time of Nakahara’s hiring as music director for the S.C. Philharmonic, then-board member Jared Johnson said there was an “enormous number of good candidates,” but Nakahara “seemed to exude musicianship.”

“It came through in his conducting,” Johnson said at the time of Nakahara, who succeeded longtime director Nicholas Smith. “He was the unanimous choice of the musicians. He rose to the top, and no one was really in competition.”

Nakahara came to the United States from rural Japan as an exchange student when he was 15. He studied clarinet and majored in music education in college. He later earned a master’s degree in conducting from the Cincinnati College Conservatory.

This story was originally published May 3, 2017 at 5:44 PM with the headline "SC Philharmonic director taking on new role but keeping post here."