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