According to Stryker, Dutoit and Rafael Fr‹hbeck de Burgos are the two candidates with the strongest support from DSO musicians. But Fr‹hbeck de Burgos has already declined to be considered.

Other contenders include Peter Oundjian, the violinist-turned-conductor who is currently music director of the Toronto Symphony; Mark Wigglesworth, the British conductor who was recently named music director of Belgium's Th_ê¢tre Royal de la Monnaie; Hans Graf, the Austrian-born conductor of the Houstan Grand Opera; and Yan Pascal Tortelier, the principal guest conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Less likely possibilities, Stryker says, include American conductor Hugh Wolff, who was a finalist when the DSO hired J‹rvi in 1990, and Andrew Davis, the music director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the music advisor of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Among "wild cards" who are scheduled to guest-conduct the DSO soon are Leonard Slatkin, Dennis Russell Davies, and James Conlon.