PRESTIGIOUS POST: John Devlin, former assistant conductor of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, has been appointed music director of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra. (Photo by Suhail Mir)

John Devlin, the former assistant conductor of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and most recently the music director of the Hawaii Youth Symphony, has been appointed music director of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra (WSO) in West Virginia.

While with the PSO, Devlin conducted the Holiday POPS! concert, Saturday Evening POPS! with Sierra Boggess, and the world premiere of American Repertory Ballet’s Pride and Prejudice. Devlin also participated in pre-concert talks and hosted groups from Princeton Adult School attending PSO rehearsals. Most recently, he authored the program notes for each of the PSO’s classical series concerts.

On learning of the appointment, PSO Executive Director Marc Uys said, “This is a tremendous and well-deserved opportunity for John to lead a very well established orchestra similar in size to the PSO. I wish him the very best on this new adventure.”

Devlin joins the WSO after an 18-month nationwide search and a year of music director finalists conducting the orchestra. In the 2018-19 season, he conducted Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 and a series of songs performed by bass Soloman Howard, and Once Upon a Time featuring Broadway star Sierra Boggess.

In addition to his work with the PSO, Devlin served as cover conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra. He designs concerts that frame orchestral music in new and innovative ways and has inspired many forward-looking concepts such as Gourmet Symphony, of which he is the founding artistic director, Go-Go Symphony, Seamless Symphony, Interactive Symphony, and the New Retro Project.