Washington State’s Bellingham Festival of Music has announced the appointment of Marcelo Lehninger as its new Artistic Director.

He will succeed Michael Palmer, co-founder and Conductor Laureate, who led the Festival from 1993 to 2022.

Lehninger is the Music Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony and he made his Bellingham debut this summer in the Festival’s 30th season.

His performance captivated the orchestra players, Board of Directors, sponsors, and audiences. His appointment ends a three-year process by a Search Committee composed of four BFM Orchestra players, two board members, the Festival production manager, and retired physician and cellist Daniel Feller of Bellingham and Phoenix who chaired the committee.

In his new position Lehninger, which will be an initial five-year tenure, the conductor will oversee all artistic aspects of the Festival in consultation with the Board and the BFM Artistic Committee, and he will select Festival repertoire and guest artists, plan future seasons, audition/select musicians to fill vacancies in the orchestra and chorus, set the performance and rehearsal schedules, and collaborate on educational outreach and fundraising.

He will conduct five orchestral concerts in his inaugural 2024 season.

Aside from his work with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Lehninger has previously served as Music Director of the New West Symphony in Los Angeles and was Assistant and then Associate Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has also worked with the Sarasota Orchestra, North Carolina and Tulsa Symphonies, and San Antonio Philharmonic; Peninsula Music Festival, Prague Philharmonia (Czech Republic), MAV Symphony (Hungary), and the Sao Paulo State Symphony Orchestra and Minas Gerais Philharmonic (Brazil).