BRUNSWICK — Emily Isaacson, new director of the Oratorio Chorale, has deep ties to the community in Brunswick.

“I feel very blessed,” the 39-yearold Isaacson said. “I will be working with an incredibly committed group of individuals, determined to make the Chorale strong and healthy.”

Isaacson went through an eightmonth audition process to replace retiring Peter Frewen. She will be taking the baton in time for the Oratorio Chorale’s 40th season.

She’s very excited about returning to Brunswick, which she considers her musical roots. Isaacson’s father was a longtime board member of the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Isaacson herself was a participant.

“I have to credit Lewis Kaplan and Richard Francis for helping me as a 12-year-old soloist,” she said.

She was also a member of the Bowdoin College Chorus under Tony Antolini and Sean Fleming, the Maine Youth Orchestra under Paul Ross, and the Maine State Music Theatre.

“That experience really helped me with my knowledge of how an orchestra works and fostered an early love of orchestral music,” she said.

Isaacson says that part of being a conductor is being able to “perform” the music and, for that, she credits her experiences with the Theater Project under Al Miller, Lee Paige, Chris Price and Wendy Poole.

She would like to combine the arts into a larger spectacle, she said. “People come to a classical music event now and sit quietly in rows and listen to the music and clap at the end. But historically, that’s not how what we think of as classical music was listened to. Sacred music was heard in church; profane music was heard at royal courts, as part of plays, in drinking halls. I am very interested in how the arts speak to one another.”

She said she would like to provide those sorts of experiences with the Oratorio Chorale. She would like to form partnerships with theaters and other musical organizations to provide a more “complete” picture of the art.

For the first season, the November concert will be called “Musical Fireworks,” incorporating music of Mozart, Mendelssohn and others, and including a brass quartet for instrumentation, along with violin, cello and tympani.

The February concert will be called “Shakespeare in Concert,” and will include acting of Shakespeare scenes for which there are musical interpretations as well.

The May concert will be the Brahms Requiem for two pianos, soloists and choir. “The Requiem is very personal,” she said. “Brahms likely wrote it for his mother, who died in 1865. The piece says more about how you comfort the grieving than it does about the dead.”

In future seasons, Isaacson would like to combine the Chorale and dance, and the Chorale and visual arts. “I envision a collaboration with student artists,” she said.

Isaacson also wants to expand the Chorale to include a children’s choir, and add artists from Maine, as well as her professional contacts in New York and Boston, perhaps to offer master classes.

She also says that it’s important to bring art into the community in other ways. “For example, we should be bringing music into the schools,” she said. “I envision working with teachers to bring in music that relates to what the students are studying, such as performing music from the Civil War as part of a history unit.”

Isaacson said that the Chorale will hold auditions on Sept. 5 from 7 to 9 p.m., and on Sept. 7 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with callbacks on Sept. 8 at the first rehearsal of the year.

“I am looking forward to using the Chorale, and its music, to enrich lives, and the cultural fabric of the Mid-coast,” she said.