When Alex Baran tendered his resignation as executive director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra in June, he told The Spectator the job was one for a younger person with drive.

It seems that the HPO has found such a person. Earlier this month, Annelisa Pedersen, 30, was named as the HPO's new executive director.

Pedersen, who originally hails from Langley, B.C., is a classically trained trumpeter who studied at the University of British Columbia, the Vancouver Academy of Music, The Glenn Gould School in Toronto and The Banff Centre.

In 2005, she graduated from the arts administration and cultural management program at Toronto's Humber College. During her studies at Humber, she worked as an intern in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's operations and artistic administration department. Since 2006, Pedersen has been general manager of musica intima, a professional 12-voice chamber ensemble based in Vancouver.

Pedersen will assume her HPO duties on January 7.

"I don't think of it as young," said Pedersen from her Vancouver office in reference to her age. "I think that there is sort of a group of us that are coming up. I know that Regina (Symphony Orchestra) has a very young executive director also."

In the summer of 2007, musica intima performed at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival with Pedersen in attendance. With family and several close friends living in the area, she decided to attend the festival this past summer as well.

At that festival, she heard some of the HPO's musicians perform Stravinsky's L'histoire du soldat with conductor Jamie Sommerville at the Canadian Museum of Civilization Theatre. Pedersen, who had met Sommerville some years earlier at a summer music program where he was on faculty, was encouraged by Sommerville to apply for the HPO job.

Sommerville was also one of the members of the search committee looking for an executive director.

"I can't speak for them," said Pedersen of the HPO's search committee and board, "but I think that probably one of the reasons why they selected me (is that) I have had a significant amount of success in my current job in increasing revenue from the arts councils (provincial and federal). Our Canada Council grants have increased from $85,000 to $151,000 over the course from '07 to '08."

Board members declined to comment on the appointment until after today's annual general meeting, which Pedersen was expected to attend.

When asked if she had the Midas touch, Pedersen chuckled and answered, "I think what I have been successful doing at musica intima is really promoting what great works the ensemble has done and is doing. Arts councils are partners of ours. They're not foe. They're friends. I enjoy working with everyone at the Canada Council and the British Columbia Arts Council. ... I definitely like writing grants, which is a good quality in an arts administrator."

And it seems as though Pedersen will have to be quite adept at writing grant applications for the HPO. An e-mail message sent on Nov. 4 by HPO chair Carl Turkstra to HPO supporters stated: "Our grants from both the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council were very disappointing. We have had to postpone our planned symposium on What's Next and the Carter program until the fall of 2009. The Board decided to proceed with our new Elegance series without the extra funding, so we expect 2008/2009 to be a very difficult year financially. Your contributions will be very welcome."

That gloomy financial message differs from what Baran told The Spectator in June. At that time, Baran estimated the HPO would be "about $20,000 in the black. Add that on top of last year's $42,000 ... this is the way it should operate, with a modest surplus in the 2 to 3 per cent range annually."

The HPO post will be a step up for Pedersen. The annual budget of musica intima stands at $400,000, while, according to Baran, the HPO's is "close to $1.4 million in operating size."

"Singers don't make as much as orchestral musicians," said Pedersen, "but it (musica intima) is actually quite a similar organization -- apart from not being an orchestra -- to the Hamilton Philharmonic. We probably have just as much or more activity. It's just smaller halls, etc."

Pedersen said musica intima performed a total of 37 concerts last year before 10,540 people, singing in Vancouver as well as on tour to the Yukon, Quebec, the United States, Ireland and Denmark. Attendance at their 18 Vancouver concerts totalled 3,800, with the choir performing in venues with fewer than 500 seats.

By contrast, the HPO gives 10 concerts in Hamilton Place, which seats slightly more than 2,100, as well as three performances in Central Presbyterian Church, plus educational concerts, and contract work for Opera Hamilton and the Bach Elgar Choir.

Pedersen was in Hamilton in early October to hear the HPO perform as part of the Great Romantics Festival.

"I thought it was great," Pedersen said of the concert. "I think there's a tremendous amount of community support for the orchestra, and it's good to see that."

Leonard Turnevicius writes on classical music for The Spectator.

leonardturnevicius@hotmail.com