The state of Maryland will experience some games of "musical podiums" in the 1999–2000 season, and not just in the case of Yuri Temirkanov's first official season at the helm of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (he takes over from longtime music director David Zinman, who has been music director emeritus since last year).

The BSO's associate conductor, Daniel Hege, has been appointed to replace Fabio Mechetti as music director of the Syracuse (New York) Symphony Orchestra, in a unanimous first-choice vote by the search committee. The 33-year-old Hege begins September 1, 1999, and will conduct numerous concerts in Syracuse during the 1999–2000 season. He conducts 80 Baltimore Symphony concerts annually and will continue his work as associate conductor there.

Meanwhile, back in Hagerstown, the Maryland Symphony Orchestra named Elizabeth Schulze as its music director, to succeed Barry Tuckwell. Her first concert as music director was the July 3 Independence Day concert at Antietam National Battlefield, an event that draws a crowd of 30–40,000. Last season, Schulze completed a four-year stint as associate conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington; she is intensely interested in music education and will have ample opportunity and enthusiastic support for similar efforts in Hagerstown.

• 1