A global search will be launched to find a new maestro and music director for the Windsor Symphony Orchestra.
A music director search committee is being established to conduct the search, which is expected to begin in the next few weeks.
The search committee is being tasked with finding a replacement for the late Robert Franz, who held the leadership position since 2013.
Franz passed away September 3, 2025, at the age of 57 after losing a second battle with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.
"We did have international candidates, not just from the U.S. but Europe as well. If we're looking at what we did last time, then I anticipate there will international candidates applying," she says.
Lauzon says one of the really important qualities they look for in a music director is the ability to do community outreach and bring classic music into the region.
"That looks like many different things. It looks like going into kindergarten classes, it looks like going into long-term care homes, but it's also a belief in what community outreach does for an orchestra," she says. "Of course we want everyone to come to our main stage master works and pop performances. But if we're not doing that community outreach, then we're not sustaining our audiences for the future."
Lauzon expects the entire hiring process will take 12 to 18 months.
A series of guest conductors, hand picked by Franz before he passed away, will help the WSO during this performance season.
During the 2024-2025 season, WSO held 45 mainstage performances that were attended by 18,691 people. The symphony also hosted five free outdoor summer concerts, 27 education concerts in schools across Windsor-Essex. 19,000 students experienced the WSO at their schools or at the Capitol Theatre.
The Windsor Symphony Orchestra performs out of the Capitol Theatre at 121 University Avenue West in downtown Windsor.