
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has initiated its search for a successor to Louis Langrée, who announced in June he will not seek renewal of his contract beyond the 2023-24 season, his eleventh as music director.
Most stories about John Morris Russell spend lots of time discussing his showmanship, his brash, cheerleader-ish onstage persona as conductor of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra – the guy one of his former colleagues described as “a wind-up toy” that never runs down. But this is a story about a more contemplative JMR, as he has become known over his 20 years in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra organization.