DANVILLE — Two maestros who have led symphonies in various corners of the globe are vying to become Danville Symphony Orchestra’s new music director.

Why Danville? Both have local ties and feel a strong connection to the musicians and people of the area.

At the risk of being melodramatic, call it “The Battle of the Dueling Maestros.”

More than 60 people applied to be considered for the position. A committee of musicians, DSO board members, staff and community members pared the total down to two finalists — maestro Richard Zielinski and maestro Matthew Sheppard.

Danville Symphony audiences have a voice in choosing the winner: Patrons were previously invited by Executive Director Kay Welch to fill out a brief opinion survey regarding the position.

Said Welch, “We certainly care about how our DSO musicians feel about the two conductors, but we are also committed to hearing from our audiences, what our audiences think will help us immeasurably in the process of hiring the next music director.”

Both of the prospects get two opportunities to lead the orchestra.

Zielinski has had his first one already, on Oct. 14, when he opened the DSO 2023-24 season with a concert featuring Broadway show tunes. On Dec. 2, it will be Sheppard’s first turn, leading a concert titled “Nothin’ but the Blues Christmas,” at the Dick Van Dyke Auditorium at Danville High School.

After each conductor will performs an additional concert, the new director will be named at some point in 2024.

DSO operations manager Maddi Julian said this form of selection process is not new.

“A lot of orchestras, when they’re looking for a new maestro, go through a similar process,” Julian said. “It’s kind of a good way to … see what the candidates can do and if they’re a good fit for not only the orchestra but also for the community.”

Danville hasn’t had to go through this process for quite some time, Julian said. The last director, Jeremy Swerling, who lived in Baltimore since 1999 and commuted back and forth to the area, was maestro for 28 years.

Zielinski said being a globetrotter is nothing new for music directors.

An Oklahoma resident, Zielinski has led orchestras, choruses and stage productions in Europe, Asia and North America. He serves as artistic director and principal conductor of the 48th Classical Music Festival and Orchestra in Esterhazy Palace, Eisenstadt, Austria.

“I think music is the international language,” Zielinski said. “The language of music speaks to everybody, and when we experience that … we’re all (encountering) the human experience of love, emotion, joy and sadness together.”

Zielinski said he feels “blessed that I have done this profession for my career.”

“As a composer, my language is music. So I can go to other countries, and we can all connect.”

Earlier in his life, he was a graduate student of the University of Illinois, an experience that he said set his course. During that time, he developed a connection to Danville, serving as music director at Central Christian Church.

And, in 1988, he co-founded the Danville-based Vermilion Festival Chorus, which is still intact.

Zielinski said his return to Danville to direct the orchestra in October was “a wonderful, beautiful, emotional experience.”

He currently teaches at the University of Oklahoma, conducts the Norman (Okla.) Philharmonic Orchestra and is minister of music at McFarlin United Methodist Church in Norman. He has also done conducting in Poland, China and South Korea.

Sheppard also has a connection to this area, having studied for his doctorate in orchestral conducting at the UI in 2013.

When Sheppard was living in Champaign-Urbana for three years, he had a chance to work with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra.

“I worked with them regularly,” he said, “and got to know a lot of the orchestral musicians in the area.

“I just really enjoyed having those folks as colleagues. When I saw the Danville Symphony was looking for a music director, it was a good chance to reconnect,” the Chicago-based Sheppard said.

He said he has had a chance to hear the Danville Symphony, and called them “a fantastic orchestra with a great connection to the community.”

Sheppard is the artistic director of the award-winning Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Hyde Park Youth Symphony, education conductor of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and music director of the University of Chicago Chamber Orchestra and the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company of Chicago.

For the 2022-23 season, he was the guest resident conductor of the Bienen School of Music, where he conducted the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra.

Sheppard has guest-conducted orchestras in North and South America.

He has taught courses on conducting musicianship and active listening at several universities, including the UI.