SCORE News, moves, and events in the orchestra industry The
Musical Chairs
Left to right: Martin Inglis, Columbus Symphony Orchestra board chair; Bill Conner, Columbus Association for the Performing Arts president & CEO; Roland Valliere, CSO president; Michael Petrecca, CAPA board chair
The Virginia Symphony has appointed ERIC BORENSTEIN executive director, effective June 1. EMANUEL BOROK , concertmaster
of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 1985, will retire from that post in August. The Elgin (Ill.) Symphony Orchestra has announced the election of JERRY CAIN as president, effective July 1.
KATHLEEN CARROLL has been named president and CEO of the Toledo Symphony, effective July 1. She succeeds ROBERT BELL , who will serve as president emeritus and chief artistic officer through the 2010-11 season.
The ongoing recession has presented many orchestras with substantial financial challenges; the Charleston and Honolulu symphony orchestras recently suspended operations as they regroup and determine how to proceed. Other orchestras are finding creative ways to beat the economy. With a projected $1.5 million deficit for the 2009-10 season, the Columbus (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra on April 5 entered into a five-year management agreement with the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, a nonprofit organization that owns and/or manages several theaters and performing arts spaces in Columbus. CAPA will oversee the orchestra’s accounting, marketing, advertising, ticketing, and human resources operations. CAPA President and CEO Bill Conner will serve as volunteer managing director and CEO for the orchestra, while CSO President Roland Valliere will add the title of chief creative officer, leading the organization in business development, artistic and creative content, and musician
relations. The arrangement will save the CSO more than $750,000 during the 2010-11 season, while a previous 23 percent pay concession by the musicians saves an additional $1 million. Valliere sees the benefits as threefold: the access to CAPA’s balance sheet and line of credit; opportunity to utilize the organization’s experienced staff; and the cost savings of staff consolidation. Valliere will focus on the creation of a business plan, while Conner manages the financial and administrative sides. Could such a merger work for other orchestras? “Looking at a partnership with another organization that has similar functions is something that could make sense,” Valliere says. “But at least for us it made a lot of sense. We were at a point of crisis organizationally where it had to happen because there wasn’t any alternative. Most orchestras don’t find themselves in that situation, but sometimes it does take a real crisis to facilitate not just incremental but exponential change.”
Throughout this issue, text marked like this indicates a link to websites and online resources. americanorchestras.org
Musical Chairs
Change in Columbus
Terry Gilliam
Carroll The Van Cliburn Foundation has appointed KARLA DIEBS CROSS director of finance and MAGGIE ESTES director of marketing. has been named vice president of external affairs at the Nashville Symphony.
ANDREA DILLENBURG
The Yakima (Wash.) Symphony Orchestra has appointed LAWRENCE GOLAN music director, effective July 1. California’s San Luis Obispo Symphony has named BRIAN HERMANSON executive director.
Golan The Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City has appointed TRAVIS JÜRGENS music director and conductor, effective at the end of the 2009-10 season.
ALLISON KAISER has been named executive director of the Lexington (Ky.) Philharmonic, effective in August.
The Memphis Symphony Orchestra has announced the appointment of STILIAN KIROV as assistant conductor of the MSO and music director of the Memphis Youth Symphony Program.
SASHA MÄKILÄ has been named assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, effective this September.
The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, based in Little Rock, has appointed PHILIP MANN music director, effective in October 2010. TIMOTHY RUSSELL , music
director of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Mann Columbus, Ohio, since its inception in 1978, will step down from that post at the end of the 2012-13 season, when he assumes the title conductor laureate. The Philadelphia Orchestra has appointed ARI SOLOTOFF to the newly created post of chief of staff and director of planning.
has been named principal tuba at the Redlands (Calif.) Symphony.
SCOTT SUTHERLAND
Solotoff
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