DAYTON — Keitaro Harada, announced Thursday as the new Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra music and artistic director designate, said he knew Dayton was special from the moment he took the stage with the orchestra.
“It’s like a dream,” he said. “A dream come true.”
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Keitaro (pronounced Key-TARA) Harada was the pick from among more than 250 applicants.
“There was a magic, magical moment throughout the two performances that we had with the orchestra and then the energy from the audience and then there was a good feeling,” Harada told News Center 7′s Xavier Hershovitz.
The change at the conductor’s stand -- Harada will become the fifth conductor in the orchestra’s more than 90-year history -- means moving on from a local legend of sorts in conductor Neal Gittleman.
“Time flies when you’re having fun,” said Gittleman, who has led the orchestra for 29 years. His 30th year, which is upcoming, will be his last.
He said he’s “mostly just happy for all the things we’ve done together and happy to leave the orchestra hopefully in a good position for the future.”
Harada will have a full year to get used to Dayton before he takes over on the Schuster Center stage.
Gittleman, in the meantime, will get the year to soak everything one more time.
“I expect when I’m sitting in the audience, I’ll be hearing lots of good things, then I’ll be thinking, ‘Damn, I should have done that,’ " Gittleman said.
For his part as the new man, Harada said he will continue to honor what has what Gittleman has done for this community, “what he has done for this orchestra, and in just trying to find new ways and new adventures that we have we haven’t explored here yet.”