No place like home for Elgin Symphony CEO

After several years in central Canada building his career in orchestra management, Dale J. Lonis is "back home" as the new chief executive officer of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra.

"I can't wait. It's been 20 years since I lived there," Lonis said from his office at the Winnipeg Symphony in Manitoba, where he has had notable success building that orchestra's audience and educational outreach programs.

"I grew up in Aurora and played on the Fox River all my life," he said. "I arrived for my interview in Elgin, and I took a walk by the river and felt 'Wow, this is home.' I got a sense that this is where I want to be."

Not lost on Lonis is the opportunity to work with one of the nation's fastest-growing regional orchestras. The ESO has an annual budget of more than $3 million and reaches a yearly audience of more than 50,000 through its Classic Series, Pops Series and holiday concerts.

"Just to have an opportunity with a great orchestra, and a really solid board of directors and a willing community -- with the mayor and his staff's support -- I just think it's a win-win situation," said Lonis, who will begin his new job in early July.

The West Aurora High School graduate earned his bachelor's and Ph.D degrees in music education from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and he added a master's in conducting at Northwestern.

He later served on the NU conducting faculty, and he also was a member of the music faculty at the University of Missouri, where he headed the school's conducting department and its performing organizations.

Later, he was dean of the music faculty at the University of Manitoba before taking the administrative helm of the Winnipeg Symphony.

Lonis continues to conduct. Over the past 25 years he has done considerable work in Israel, where he founded the Israel Wind Orchestra, whose members are drawn from the Israel Philharmonic.

"From what I remember, even when I was on the faculty at Northwestern, the Elgin Symphony had a good reputation, but it wasn't nearly what it is today," Lonis said. "When I went for my first interview and heard them play, I said 'Wow! This is really a terrific orchestra.'"

Lonis also looks forward to working with music director Robert Hanson, whose gift for creative programming and commitment to area music education are legendary.

"We started off just having a meet-and-greet and a chat, and it turned into a session in which be were both dreaming about what we could do together," Lonis said. "We hit it off just tremendously. I really believe in him; I believe in what he brings to the table in terms of his background and his musicianship -- and where he's already brought this orchestra."

A major goal for the new CEO is moving forward on the proposed concert hall for the City of Elgin. Much planning has already been done by Lonis' predecessor, Michael Pastreich, who left the ESO last fall to take over the Florida Orchestra in Tampa-St. Petersburg.

"First of all, I want to listen to all the stake holders," Lonis said. "I have some ideas, based on what I'd been told during the interview process and talking to people around the community.

"I spoke to the mayor last week, and we really want to get this hall going again. To me, the key to that will be building an even greater sense of community, and greatly involve our schools in having their students use the hall on a regular basis.

"We want people in Elgin and the surrounding communities to understand that it's not just 'Why would we want to build a hall just for a symphony orchestra?' because that's not the plan. It's to be a hall that's used by the community and embraced by the community as well."