The most magical moment for Joseph Giunta is when he enters the nearly empty Civic Center of Greater Des Moines before a concert. The musicians set up, tuning their instruments. The audience begins to file in the doors. As everyone takes their places, both the symphony and the audience, his excitement grows. The house lights dim, the stage lights rise, and for a moment, everyone is still. They are waiting for the music. Giunta, music director and conductor of the Des Moines Symphony, raises his arms, then makes the motions that call the musicians to action.

“I’m just mesmerized by the ritual,” he said.

Conductors are often an itinerant lot, moving from orchestra to orchestra. Giunta, on the other hand, is in his 15th year with the Des Moines Symphony and he shows no signs of leaving anytime soon.

He says it’s a challenging career with very little security, and in a year or two his employers could decide to take the symphony in a new direction with a new director. Ticket sales are up 6 percent this year, however, and the orchestra’s endowment has climbed significantly during Giunta’s tenure. When he first arrived, the endowment was $35,000. Now it is $2 million, and an additional $2.5 million has been pledged. Giunta says the Des Moines Symphony’s performances are well attended for an orchestra its size, but because the Des Moines Civic Center is so large, there are always more seats to be filled.

“All I see are the empty seats,” he said. It is his goal to continually increase attendance, and he hopes that next year the symphony can build upon the popularity of this season’s program, “Beethoven One to Nine.”

Giunta grew up in Cherry Hill, N.J., not far from Philadelphia. By the time he was a high school junior, he knew that he wanted to be a conductor.

“It was a matter of simple exposure,” he said, referring to the many performances of the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Eugene Ormandy, and the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, his parents would take him to. When Giunta was getting his start, budding conductors typically had to spend years proving their proficiency on a particular instrument before they could ascend the podium. Giunta knew, however, that he wanted to wield a baton. Very few colleges or universities had conducting programs, but in 1974, Giunta was among the first to graduate with a conducting degree at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

His first job after graduation was as conductor of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra. He had the opportunity to work as an assistant conductor in Detroit and New Orleans, but said a mentor told him, “If they’re dumb enough to let you, at 23, run an orchestra, take it.”

He credits his mentors with helping him choose the right pieces in those early years, and giving him his entrance into the guest-conducting circuit, starting with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has since worked symphony orchestras nationwide and abroad, including the Minnesota Orchestra, the London Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the Chicago Pops and the orchestras of Indianapolis, Phoenix, Akron, North Carolina, Madison, Charlotte, Lake Forest, Nashville, Boise, Vermont, Bangor, Orlando and Hawaii.

That is enough to sate his wanderlust, he says, especially since he is continually challenged by his audiences in Des Moines.

“When I first came to Des Moines, the city was growing and valued culture,” Giunta said. “It had one of the best multipurpose halls in the country. The biggest surprise — it was a wonderful revelation — was how enthusiastic and open-minded the audiences were.”

He says it is difficult for him to distinguish between his work and private lives. His passion for music permeates both.

“It’s a way of life,” he said. “Even after all these years studying music, I still don’t know very much about it. That to me is the magic.”