Philadelphia Orchestra has a new assistant conductor. She likens the job to a Formula 1 reserve driver.
"You might not be driving the car, but you could get a call and you have to get on,” said Sara Aldana follows Naomi Woo, who has already been engaged as a guest conductor next season.
When Sara Aldana auditioned for the coveted Philadelphia Orchestra assistant conductor spot in April, she tried out in front of the ensemble with Copland and Bartok.
For the third piece, she chose an excerpt from Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2. The Russian composer is closely associated with the Philadelphians — he once called the orchestra the greatest in the world — and the second symphony, Aldana said, was close to her heart.
“I was like, whatever happens with the audition, I just want that memory of — wow — doing Rachmaninoff Two with Philadelphia for five minutes.”
Now she’ll be spending many more minutes with the Philadelphians. Aldana won the audition, and is the orchestra’s next assistant conductor, the group announced Wednesday.
The position is a junior one, though it has been a steppingstone to bigger opportunities. Aldana follows Naomi Woo, who has already been engaged as a guest conductor next season.
Aldana studied with Philadelphia Orchestra principal guest conductor Marin Alsop and worked as a cover conductor with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. As assistant conductor in Philadelphia, she will lead family and special concerts and give pre-concert talks.
One of her biggest responsibilities will be one the public may never get to see — or that could make her career. She will serve as cover conductor, which means she could be tapped to lead a Philadelphia Orchestra concert at any moment if the scheduled conductor falls ill or is otherwise unable to perform at the last minute.
“I always think it’s like the Formula 1 reserve driver, you know? You might not be driving the car, but you could get a call and you have to get on, driving the car,” she said Aldana.
Aldana, 30, was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and earned an undergraduate degree in violin performance at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Kenneth Kiesler, and did further studies with Alsop and Joseph Young at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.
She has served as assistant conductor of the Reno Chamber Orchestra and is a 2026 mentee with the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship.
Aldana was at Peabody for a year, but left after winning the Philadelphia audition.
That tryout ended with five finalists for the job. Each had a short time conducting the orchestra, dipping into excerpts of various styles — Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin Suite, and the third piece, which the finalists could choose themselves from among three possibilities.
All five chose the last few minutes of the famously emotive third movement of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2.
Why this piece?
“I’m a violinist by training, and so I absolutely love Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2."
The audition lasted all of 15 minutes.
“Fifteen minutes is a short amount of time, but you realize with Philadelphia, it’s all you need to get a good idea of who they are as an ensemble and the culture that they have as a group. It just happened to be a beautiful connection.”
Although Aldana started out as a violinist, she long harbored, even as a child, an interest in conducting.
“Your instrument is the orchestra, all these colors, and it’s just getting to play with all of them — how you create sound, balance, getting to discover, you’re continuously learning. That’s something that really appealed to me.”
Aldana’s official start is Sept. 1. Her first scheduled concert with the orchestra is a January 2 matinee in Marian Anderson Hall of Strauss family waltzes and other works.
Asked what piece she might dream of someday conducting with this orchestra, Aldana said any Tchaikovsky symphony, but especially the Sixth.
“There was an Ormandy recording that I remember listening to a lot. I was obsessed with this piece — obsessed. I remember that lush of the strings in the most heart-wrenching moments.”
Is there a piece she would find too daunting to conduct?
“Daunting. Hmm. I don’t think so.”
Does that mean she’s musically fearless?
“I am a little fearless,” she said, “when you have one of the best orchestras in the world in front of you.”
