In selecting Thierry Fischer as the Utah Symphony's new music director, the search committee and management have shown they're serious about raising the orchestra's artistic standards.

For the first time since Maurice Abravanel, the orchestra has a music director who will have high expectations from his musicians and who, I believe, will build on and develop their talent, taking the orchestra to the next level of artistic achievement. And in doing so, I'm convinced that Fischer will be able to bring back the luster that has been missing for quite some time now, giving the Utah Symphony once again a national and, hopefully, international presence.

Fischer is without question a true successor to Abravanel. In 1947, when Abravanel became the Utah Symphony's music director he took over an orchestra that by all accounts was semi-professional at best. Through his dedicated drive, energy and determination, as well as hiring some talented players, he made the symphony perform to professional standards and turned the ensemble into one of the best orchestras of its size in the country. And through scores of recordings and tours he raised its visibility well beyond Utah's boundaries.

But in the intervening years, that radiance the Utah Symphony had under Abravanel waned.

As much as I have always admired Joseph Silverstein, he is first and foremost an exceptional concert violinist and chamber musician and by all accounts one of the most respected concertmasters of the 20th century, a position he held with distinction for many years with the Boston Symphony.

But as a conductor, Silverstein never quite had it. During his tenure with the Utah Symphony, his concerts were good but rarely great. His programming, however, was frequently interesting and varied, as well as relevant by occasionally including contemporary works by prominent composers. And he did continue recording and touring with the orchestra.

Fischer will turn things around and burnish the orchestra's reputation. And we need to expect a lot from him. He brings experience, musicality and technical polish to his new position, not to mention exuberance and personality. The Swiss conductor has the ability and talent to take the orchestra's untapped potential and show us what it really can do.

The former music director of the Ulster Orchestra and current chief conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and music director of Japan's Nagoya Philharmonic (at least until February 2011), as well as a sought-after guest conductor, Fischer is already well-known in Europe. And now with the Utah Symphony, his first permanent post in the United States, Fischer is poised to make a name for himself — and for the Utah Symphony again — in this country.

I'm looking forward to the 2010-11 season. Fischer will unveil it when he returns to Salt Lake City in January to conduct the orchestra in a program of Brahms and Shostakovich. I have high hopes that Fischer's programming for the symphony, which had been all too predictable and unimaginative during Keith Lockhart's time here, will be exciting once again.

The Utah Symphony's future looks very bright.

e-mail: ereichel@desnews.com