KWAX Classical Oregon will broadcast each of the Eugene Symphony Orchestra’s five concerts designed to choose its new music director.

The “Final Five” series begins Tuesday February 11 at 10 a.m. Pacific and airs each Tuesday at that time through March 11. Listen to the series in the Eugene-Springfield area on 91.1 FM, via translators throughout the state, or streaming worldwide.

Narrowed from a field of 177 candidates, each of the five music director finalists conducts a concert featuring a different Beethoven piano concerto and major symphonic works.

The schedule:

February 11, Alexander Prior
A British-born composer and conductor, Prior has served as chief conductor of the Edmonton Symphony in Canada (appointed when he was just 23) and as guest conductor with the Royal Danish Opera, the Seattle Symphony, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Prior’s program includes Night on Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky, the Andante Moderato by American composer Florence Price, Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8, and the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 with solo pianist Ying Li.

February 18, Farkhad Khudyev
Khudyev, a native of Turkmenistan, has a degree from the Yale School of Music and has conducted with such prestigious organizations as the San Francisco and Seattle symphony orchestras. Here he conducts Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, the overture to Verdi’s La forza del destino, and the Beethoven Piano Concerto No 2 with Chaeyoung Park as soloist.

February 25, Rory Macdonald
A Scotland native and Cambridge grad, Macdonald regularly leads the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra. His ESO concert features music by Grammy-nominated composer Anna Clyne, Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2, and the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with soloist Anthony Ratinov.

March 4, Tania Miller
Miller made history as the first female music director of a major Canadian orchestra, having led the Victoria Symphony for fourteen years. She has also held long-term engagements with the Vancouver Symphony and the Detroit Symphony. Her ESO concert includes Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1, Andrea Tarrodi’s Birds of Paradise, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with soloist Harmony Zhu.

March 11, Taichi Fukumura
Through appearances with the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and aothers, Fukumura has established himself as one of the most promising conductors of his generation. In the series finale he conducts Hannah Kendall’s The Spark Catchers (inspired by stories of the women who worked in the matchstick factories of Victorian England), Brahms’s Symphony No. 4, and the Beethoven Piano Concerto No 5 featuring rising star Clayton Stephenson.

The Eugene Symphony Orchestra expects to name its new music director the week of March 11, following the last broadcast—marking a new era for the city’s foremost music organization. “We’re proud to present the series on KWAX,” said Dave Moss, the orchestra’s executive director. “Audiences who were there in the Hult can relive the excitement of those wonderful nights, and radio listeners worldwide will have the opportunity to assess these stunning young conducting talents.”