SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP): Five candidates are in the running to replace the retiring longtime music director of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra.

Maestro Tsung Yeh is retiring after the symphony’s current season. The South Bend Tribune reports symphony leadership announced the five candidates to replace him at a news conference Thursday.

The candidates come from the United States, Bulgaria, Spain, Serbia and Japan, and they all work at U.S. orchestras. Candidates include the music directors of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra in Bloomington, Illinois, and the Chicago-area Lake Forest Symphony.

The five are scheduled to conduct concerts during the South Bend symphony’s 2016-17 season.

Joyce Stifel, co-chair of the music director search committee, says nearly 170 people applied to fill Yeh’s vacancy. She says the final selection should be made by spring 2017.