Great Falls Symphony selects new music director

After a two year search, the Great Falls Symphony has a new music director.

Robert Kahn accepted the position and kicked into overdrive with symphony staff to finalize programming for the 2006-2027 season.

The symphony’s search committee met May 18 to review surveys from the community, musicians and board members and using a deliberative analysis tool, recommended Kahn to the board.

The board agreed and by mid-week, Kahn was offered the position.

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Kahn was in Great Falls in February, conducting the Valentine’s Day concert, and during that weeklong visit “felt such a strong connection” with the musicians, board, staff and community.

He’s used to being patient in his career, so after his candidate concert, he tried not to think about it too much, “but I did really have this feeling that this could be the beginning of something,” Kahn told The Electric in a May 22 interview.

The feeling was mutual for Great Falls.

Typically, the symphony starts planning a season a year in advance, but with the search, that timeline is shortened for the next season, which begins in October.

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Some portions of the season have already been planned, but Kahn said he was grateful that symphony staff left enough room “for me to put my stamp on it.”

“It’s like a kid going to a candy store, I get to play with my ideas,” Kahn said. “It’s the dream part of the job, really.”

Planning the season is tied to budgeting and locking in musicians, many of whom play for multiple orchestras across the region, according to Hillary Shepherd, the symphony’s executive director.

She said she’s hoping to build greater collaboration among those orchestral groups to avoid scheduling conflicts whenever possible so musicians have the option to play more concerts, which is how many piecemeal their schedules to make a living as full-time musicians.

Audiences also overlap for area musical entities, and collaborating for scheduling gives them a chance to attend more performances, she said.

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It will be a busy few months, but Kahn is “really so, so excited to spend time there,” he said by phone in an interview with The Electric. “I really felt so at home there.”

He enjoyed, for lack of a better word, he said, the vibe of Great Falls, the surrounding nature and “people are completely themselves.”

He’s excited to explore bike trails and other outdoor activities in the region.

“I wish I could move there tomorrow, that’s how it feels,” Kahn said.

In February, he had about six days from the first rehearsal to the concert, and said he’s looking forward to working with the symphony to make progress together “over a long and far horizon,” building the technique and character of the orchestra.

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The youth orchestra and music education will be a priority for Kahn, and he’s impressed with the existing programs in the community.

He’s excited to start working with Shepherd and Dusty Molyneaux, Great Falls Public Schools’ fine arts supervisor.

“I always remind myself how important youth orchestra was for me,” Kahn said. He joined around age 16 and formed the beginning of the career that led him to his new position in Great Falls.

Shepherd said she joined the youth orchestra around the same age in Great Falls under Gordon Johnson, former Great Falls Symphony music director.

She played the clarinet, as does Kahn, and she’s said he’s inspired her to play more often, joining a local quartet of clarinetists and the municipal band.

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Kahn said he’s hoping to have youth orchestra musicians play alongside the professional orchestra for some events.

Shepherd said they had youth and professionals playing together for the youth matinee concerts this season.

“We look old,” to the fourth graders, Shepherd said of the adults, but when they see the high schoolers also on stage, “they see, oh, I could do that. It opens up this headspace for possibilities.”

For the 2026-2027 season, Kahn is also serving as assistant conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, offering support as a cover conductor, leading youth concerts and conducting the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Kahn has received the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award and worked closely with the singers and creative teams at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where he recently led
performances of Così fan tutte.

In 2022, Kahn completed the conducting fellowship at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he was mentored by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Since then, he has built relationships with major orchestras across the U.S., serving as cover conductor for the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony and the New York Philharmonic.

This season, he debuted with the Dutch National Opera, conducting during its Opera Forward Festival.

Kahn holds a professional studies degree in orchestral conducting from the Mannes School of Music in New York City and bachelor’s degrees in physics and clarinet from The Johns Hopkins University/Peabody Conservatory in Maryland.

While finalizing the next season’s programming and getting to know Great Falls, Kahn is also thinking outside the box for ideas to grow the symphony’s audience and bring music to more of the community.

He said he won’t have to swim upstream in that effort since symphony leadership is also “excited to explore new things and try new ways to reach people.”

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Shepherd said that after Kahn left in February, it seemed like everywhere she went, people said they’d met Kahn out and about. Even with his packed schedule that week, she said he went around town to meet people and talk about the symphony.

“This was such a great search and yielded so many great connections,” Shepherd said of the symphony’s 67th season.

The two-year search process that began last season drew 238 applications from across the globe.

The symphony established a 12-person search committee composed of conductors, musicians and those with administrative experience.

They broke into teams of three, with each reviewing about a quarter of the applications, whittling the list down to 13 candidates who were asked to answer a set of questions on video, Shepherd told The Electric last spring.

The full search committee reviewed those responses and further narrowed the list down to six candidates with two alternates.

The top six were scheduled for the season’s concerts and started programming, which “gets perspective of how they think,” Shepherd said. “Programming is a vessel by which to achieve an artistic vision.”

Shepherd said the symphony could work with the other candidates again in the future, “this doesn’t have to be the end.”