The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has hired Stephen Mulligan as its next assistant conductor and music director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, a dual role beginning with the 2017/18 season.
Mulligan, a Baltimore native, succeeds Joseph Young, who’s nearing the end of his third year with the ASO. He was the first person to hold the dual position, a two-year engagement that can be extended for a third year. His tenure ends in June. No details were available on what Young’s plans are.
Mulligan will work with music director Robert Spano, principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles and guest conductors in concerts and recording sessions while with the ASO. As ASYO music director, he’ll oversee repertoire selections, auditions, rehearsals, competitions, and the selection and seating of the student players, while working with the ASO’s education and community engagement department.
Mulligan most recently has been assistant conductor and youth orchestra director for the Winston-Salem Symphony in North Carolina, a job he left in May 2016. He’s also conducted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Florida Orchestra in Tampa Bay, and the Charlotte and Memphis symphony orchestras.
He earned the Aspen Conducting Prize after studying with Spano at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado (2014-16).
Mulligan graduated from Yale in 2011 and got his master’s degree from the Peabody Institute in Baltimore in 2013. As an undergrad, he was the Yale Symphony’s assistant conductor, traveled to Helsinki to study the composer Sibelius’ late manuscripts and won the Wrexham Prize for excellence in violin performance and conducting.
While at the Peabody, he co-founded and directed the Occasional Symphony, an ensemble that performed innovative programs in alternative venues. In 2012, he traveled to Venezuela with the Baltimore Symphony’s OrchKids on an educational exchange.
His many teachers include his father, Gregory Mulligan, formerly concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony and now a Baltimore Symphony violinist.
