Following an intense review process, the Butler County Symphony Association is proud to announce three finalists for the Symphony’s Music Director position. These conductors emerged as the top candidates from a pool of over 100 candidates, representing 23 US states and 11 countries. Each of the three finalists will program and conduct two concerts in the BCSO’s 2024-2025 season. The winning candidate will be appointed as Music Director of the BCSO in May of 2025. To find out more about our candidates, please review their bios below.
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Austin Chanu
A recipient of the 2023 Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation U.S., Austin Chanu is currently the Assistant Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, where he assists Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, as well as other guest conductors, and leads The Philadelphia Orchestra in select concerts.
Austin made his subscription debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in April 2023 conducting Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Critics commended his interpretation saying, “the orchestra never sounded better as Chanu led with primal energy and shamanistic insight into the music… the orchestra matched Chanu’s confident leadership in a performance of searing energy and heart-thumping passion” (Broad Street Review).
Previously, Austin has appeared as a guest conductor with the Baltimore Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Omaha Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He was also the Music Director for the Los Angeles Music and Art School. During his tenure at LAMusArt, Austin conducted the youth orchestra, choirs, and jazz band, while overseeing the development of curriculum and artistic direction of the ensembles. During this time he also served as a teaching artist and conductor for the LA Philharmonic Association’s Associate Composer Program, and was a high-call woodwind performer for musical pit orchestras in the greater Los Angeles area.
Austin received a B.M. in Music Composition from the USC Thornton School of Music in 2015, graduating Magna cum Laude. While at USC, he received the Most Valuable Player Award as a conductor and proponent of new music. Austin graduated from the Eastman School of Music in 2021 with an M.M. in Orchestral Conducting, in the studio of Neil Varon. Currently he serves as the Assistant Conductor of the Eastman Philharmonia and Eastman School Symphony Orchestra as he pursues his DMA in orchestral conducting.
Moon Doh
Moon Doh is the associate conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, appointed by Music Director Manfred Honeck in 2021. Prior to his Pittsburgh appointment he served as the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Flora Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, Germany, initiating the orchestra’s first ever live stream concerts that reached an unprecedented number of audiences across the globe over three seasons. He not only led exciting subscription concerts but also worked closely with music pedagogues to give young people a chance to learn and experience orchestral music in a meaningful way. In recent years, Moon has also worked with many orchestras across Europe. Moon’s latest collaborations in the US include debuts with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony, and Symphonia.
Born in South Korea, Moon spent much of his childhood in the Philippines, Russia, and the United States. As a passionate advocate for young rising artists, he has led concerts with the All-State Orchestra of Hessen in Germany. In addition, he was also the conductor of the Under-16 Orchestra of Tonhalle Düsseldorf and regularly coached the Youth Orchestra of Essen. A staunch believer in empowering others, Moon has actively worked with asylum seekers in Hungary, children in underserved areas of Bangladesh, and inmates in Baltimore as the president of a student organization while completing his B.A. in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins University. He currently sits on the Board of Violence Prevention Network USA, an organization that helps people at risk of radicalization. Moon studied orchestral conducting at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf in Germany. Prior to his conducting studies, he received a B.A. in music composition from Sahmyook University in South Korea.
Daniel Wiley
Daniel Wiley joined the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops, and May Festival as their Assistant Conductor in the fall of 2022. With these respective organizations he is responsible for conducting a variety of concerts as well as working with the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestras. Prior to his tenure with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Daniel held numerous conducting posts. These include the Jacksonville Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra, Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Windsor Symphony Youth Orchestras, and the Windsor Symphony Community Orchestra. He has also served as Visiting Professor and Wind Ensemble Conductor at the School of Creative Arts at the University of Windsor, Education Conductor/Consultant for London Symphonia, Conductor for the Windsor Abridged Opera Company, Music Director of Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science Youth Orchestra, and Assistant Conductor for the Meridian Symphony Orchestra.
Daniel has quickly become a notable young conductor on the rise, having made guest appearances with the Cincinnati Ballet, Calgary Philharmonic, Toledo Symphony, Orchestra Iowa & Quad City Ballet, Salisbury Symphony, Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Windsor Abridged Opera, London Symphonia, Boise Philharmonic, Abilene Philharmonic, Denali Chamber Orchestra, Meridian Symphony, Equilibrium Ensemble (Italy), and the University of North Florida Opera.
As a former public-school music teacher, Daniel has a unique passion for music education, and frequently donates his time as a guest clinician to support students and teachers in music programs across North America.
He has been instrumental in expanding the Windsor Symphony’s educational footprint by creating a digital education concert series that includes 12 hours of interactive music curriculum for schools. This program has been lauded as “an exemplar of impassioned and outstanding pedagogy” (Dr. Ken Montgomery, Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Windsor) and recognized by the Ontario Provincial Parliament as an example of how an orchestra can change lives through music. This program has served more than 200,000 students across the United States and Canada.