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• Hilbert Circle Theatre

Zach De Pue, new concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, stands outside the Hilbert Circle Theatre. (Charlie Nye for The Star)

Aspiring symphony orchestra members normally win auditions through classical music alone, but that wasn't entirely the case for Zach De Pue.

The youngest musician in at least half a century to be hired as the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's concertmaster, the 28-year-old first surfaced as a candidate for the job because of a New Year's Eve gig that his classical crossover band, Time for Three, played at Hilbert Circle Theatre.

Formed by three string players at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music, Time for Three is as likely to launch into bluegrass or jazz as classical selections. The group has about 80 concerts booked for this year, which means De Pue will be away from Indianapolis fairly often.

That didn't keep the ISO from choosing him over at least 80 others who wanted to be the orchestra's concertmaster, or first-chair violinist.

But because the ISO is a year-round orchestra, administrators also appointed Alexander Kerr as principal guest concertmaster. A former concertmaster of Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra, Kerr teaches at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

As a result, De Pue has become part of a trend among American orchestras, including the Seattle Symphony, that are hiring young concertmasters who have other professional commitments and gladly share the job.

I heard that, after Time for Three's New Year's Eve gig, someone from the ISO approached you and suggested you try out for concertmaster. Was that a surprise?

I didn't know there was an opening. I had had my ear off of the circuit for about six months. The (ISO) had announced it about the time I had taken a leave from the (Philadelphia Orchestra). As I went out on the road with Time for Three, the orchestra literature -- well, I was missing it a ton. When (the ISO) told me they would love to have me for a week as concertmaster, it was like feeding a 20-ounce porterhouse steak to a Midwestern boy who hasn't eaten all day.

Now that you've gotten the concertmaster job, what are your feelings about it?

Going from a section job (in the Philadelphia Orchestra violin section) to a concertmaster job is a different situation altogether, and a different attitude ... When I auditioned, there were no major issues. We got along well. It's a great opportunity to be present in an organization where there's some room for growth. There is (growth potential) in any organization. They seem to support younger guys like myself.

What do you think you bring to the concertmaster chair?

Hopefully, what I'm going to bring is an outside look that's a fresh look, not old school. I'm always going to think about blending harmoniously. It's a funny position, in that you are one of the band -- you're one of the orchestra members. There are moments when you stand out and play a solo, but it's one of those jobs where you're doing the same work everybody else is doing ... I like to hopefully lead by example, more than anything else, with how I play.

How unique is the situation at the ISO, in that you are concertmaster and Alexander Kerr is principal guest?

It's unique that they had somebody in mind as principal guest. Alex is a monster -- a great player and great guy. I knew of him all through Curtis Institute. We are fortunate that his family is rooted here. It's a great opportunity for him and for me. I'm not inexperienced. I had experience playing in the Philadelphia Orchestra, but his experience is enormous. We're going to play the Bach Double Concerto (with the ISO on May 16-17).

You've been playing for about six years now in Time for Three (with violinist Nicolas Kendall and bassist-composer Ranaan Meyer). How did that group form?

My brother Jason and I were at school together (at Curtis). The school knew that Jason and I fiddle, and there was a bass player who went out on gigs with us. The bass player eventually graduated. Nick had been tagging along, and Nick discovered Ranaan and wanted to connect Ranaan and me, and we would jam together. Time for Three started out of love and friendship. It was a release for us to get together to sort of have fun and have beer money ... It went from that idea.

How do you explain Time for Three's music to someone who hasn't heard it?

We got so tired of trying to explain what we do that Ranaan put files on his phone, so he literally plays our music on his phone. I always say it's sort of Americana folk classical. It's a classical-based group. We really give (the music) a lot of thought -- phrasing, intonation, timbre. The style we're using can be anything from bluegrass to funk to rock to classical.

What music are you listening to now?

I've recently gotten into a very small kick of revisiting a couple of movie musicals, "The Sound of Music" and "The Music Man." I'm amazed at where music was and where it is, at how many things are similar that maybe we don't pick up on. I recently downloaded Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and have been revisiting their early albums from the early '90s. What's fun for me is discovering an artist. I grasp onto their music and what they're doing now, then go back and discover what was their process.

Is there a De Pue Brothers band?

I have three older brothers who play the violin. All those guys inspired me to play. To tell you the truth, my brothers practiced very consistently and they still are excellent violinists. I didn't like to practice. It was hard for me, and always my brothers were saying, 'You have to do that.' We were performing together all the time. My dad (composer and Bowling Green State University professor emeritus Wallace De Pue) wanted us to perform. Jason, who's 31, now plays in the Philadelphia Orchestra. Alex is 35 and is a fiddle champion. He has garnered prizes at the majority of fiddle contests for maybe the past 10 years. Wallace Jr. is 38 and a wholesale violin dealer in Philadelphia. I'm the tallest (at 6 feet 2 inches), but one of my brothers thinks he is.

Considering that you have family in Philadelphia and had lived there since college, was it hard to leave your job there?

Yes. This would have been my fifth season there. Anytime you leave a place you've been in that long, there's a sense of nostalgia or sadness, or at least there is with me, but I also have a sense of excitement about coming to this town.