Michelle Di Russo

Michelle Di Russo is a conductor scheduled to lead the Billings Symphony Orchestra & Chorale in Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in a program pairing Stravinsky, a new work by Coleman, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 2. Listeners unfamiliar with her can expect a season built around a beloved holiday ballet and a classical-era symphony framed by 20th and 21st century music.

In Billings, Di Russo conducts Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker complete, a score built from short dance numbers, each with its own instrumental color, from the plucked strings of the famous "Sugar Plum Fairy" number to the swelling waltzes for full orchestra. In Tucson, the program opens with Stravinsky's Pulcinella, a piece that dresses up old Italian tunes in sharp, modern rhythms, followed by a new work by Coleman, then Beethoven's Symphony No. 2, an early symphony still full of Haydn-like wit but with Beethoven's own bursts of energy breaking through, particularly in its finale. Listeners can expect a conductor pacing a mixed program that moves from 18th century pastiche through contemporary music to early Beethoven.