After nearly three decades conducting the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Peter Bay is preparing to “pass the baton.”
“I could not feel more confident that the time is right for this change to happen,” Bay said after announcing he will retire at the end of ASO’s 2026-27 season. “The orchestra is in really great shape, and it's going to go further. I don't want to overdo my stay.”
Bay has had a far-reaching impact on Austin's classical music scene. In addition to serving as ASO's music director, he has been the primary conductor for the Austin Ballet and has worked with the Austin Opera, the Austin Symphonic Band and many school orchestras. He even conducted the Longhorn Band at a UT football game once.
But before all that, he was just a kid who loved rock 'n' roll.
When he was growing up, Bay said, his father would stop by the record store after work and bring home music they would listen to together. That's where his interest in music began.
“I grew up with The Beatles. The Beatles were my jam!” he said.
"The Beatles were my jam!"Peter Bay
Bay credits the acclaimed conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein for inspiring his love of classical and his dreams of becoming a conductor. He watched Bernstein conduct one of his famous Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic on TV, and the rest was history.
“I just thought it was the coolest thing,” Bay said. “I had no idea what steps it would take to become a conductor, but I knew — it's now almost 60 years ago — that that is what I wanted to do.”
Today, Bay has appeared with more than 80 different orchestras, including the Austin Symphony.
ASO through the years
When Bay first arrived in Austin in 1997, it was a different era for both the city and the orchestra. There were fewer high-rises downtown, and the Long Center was still a decade away from opening as the symphony's new permanent home.
Bay said the Long Center’s opening in 2008 transformed the orchestra’s sound and brought renewed interest to the ensemble. Previously, ASO was performing at Bass Concert Hall, a larger space that seated around 3,000 people.
“That's far too big a hall for a symphony orchestra of 80 people or so,” he said. “Now, we're in such an acoustically superior hall — 2,400 seats. We can just play naturally and not force a sound, and we can play the softest of softs and the loudest of louds, and it all registers.”
Bay hired most of the orchestra’s current 83 players and introduced more than 300 pieces into the group's repertoire, according to ASO. Among his favorites is “Compassion,” a composition that combines Hebrew and Arabic lyrics.
“If you think about those two cultures, especially now, you don't think of compassion, you think of conflict,” he said. “So that piece of music will always remain with me, and I'm hoping to do it again during my final season.”
Another of Bay's favorite performances is ASO’s fully staged production of Bernstein’s “MASS,” with a cast of 300 singers and dancers. Two of Bernstein’s children attended.
“That is one of the most memorable experiences of my lifetime,” he said. “I'm a conductor because of Leonard Bernstein, and to be able to do this piece with his children here really was one of the greatest highlights of my life.”
A new chapter
After his retirement, Bay said, he will stay in Austin, where he lives with his wife, soprano Mela Sarajane Dailey, and teenaged son, Colin, an aspiring business major Bay calls "the smart one in the family."
"He's a hip-hop kid," he said. "He's introduced a lot of music to me."
Bay will also keep conducting after 2027 as a “free agent.” What that looks like is yet to be seen. For now, he is hard at work in rehearsals for his final two seasons at ASO’s helm, and he invites his neighbors to come to the symphony and experience a “relief from everyday life.”
“The energy that comes off that stage is really infectious, and it's life affirming, it's exciting, it's fun,” he said. “And to the people who might have a prejudice against classical music, I would say: Try it.”
