58 | JUNE 30 • 2022

C

omposer-conductor
Yaniv Segal is about
to bring Michigan-
strengthened creativity to
Kansas as he takes on the
responsibilities of music
director and conductor for
the Salina Symphony.
Segal, formally beginning
his five-year term in July
and dividing his home base
between Ann Arbor and
Salina, already has begun
meeting with members of the
orchestra, administrative staff
and community supporters.
His 2022-23 opening
program in October will
feature a new work, Earthrise,
by Patrick Harlin, resident
composer of the Lansing
Symphony.
“It’s great to have this
position as a music director
of a regional orchestra and be
involved with programming,
community and fundraising
while working with guest
soloists and getting to do the
pieces I think are important
to share,” he said.

“The Salina Symphony
has six mainstage concerts
a season plus special events,
educational programs and a
summer outdoor concert at
the Eisenhower Presidential
Library & Museum in
Abilene, not far from Salina.
“Because we don’t have
concerts every week, each
event in its way is more
special and enough of a
spread across the season
to program something for
everybody.”
Segal, 41, whose last
appearances in Michigan
were in 2020 before the
pandemic isolation, worked
with the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra and the Ann
Arbor Symphony Orchestra.
During his Salina tenure, he
will be able to accept other
engagements and already has
been booked in Illinois and
Minnesota.
“I felt Earthrise was the
perfect piece to start off my
tenure because it has to do
with looking down at the

Earth and watching the sun
rise,” said Segal, who was
in competition with more
than 100 applicants whittled
down to five in performance
auditions.
“We’re also doing the
Sibelius Violin Concerto in D
minor with a phenomenal
soloist, violinist Maria
Ioudenitch. I picked this
piece because I conducted
the Sibelius Fifth Symphony
for my orchestra audition
last January and wanted to
connect the dots.
“For the second half of the
program, we have one of the
most epic masterworks in
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
It’s about this journey from
darkness to light, and it ties
in really well with Earthrise
and being reborn.”
There have been many
regenerations in Segal’s
career. Raised in New York
as the son of retired violinist
Hanna Lachert and violin
maker David Segal, he has
sung with the Metropolitan

Opera, acted in Broadway
and internationally touring
productions, performed on
violin and made recordings
of his own compositions.
In 2008, when he decided
conducting would be his
concentration, he took
advanced studies at the
University of Michigan after
studying violin at Vassar
College.
“I realized conducting
allowed me to fulfill my
dreams of performance
with the greatest possible
palette of colors: all those
instruments and people
working together to bring the
most beautiful compositions
to life,” said Segal, whose
orchestral experiences have
reached from in-person
appearances with the Naples
Philharmonic to recordings
with the BBC National
Orchestra of Wales.
Segal, who learned Hebrew
from his Israeli-raised dad
and Polish from his mom
before speaking English,

ARTS&LIFE
MUSIC

Ann Arbor conductor adds new
role in Kansas to his schedule.
Heading West

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

CHRISTINE ELZINGA

Yaniv
Segal