“The Florida Orchestra has named a new president and chief executive officer, and he might be the most versatile hire in the organization’s history,” writes Andrew Meacham in Wednesday’s (12/19) Tampa Bay Times. “Mark Cantrell, 51, currently serves as CEO of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, a professional ensemble in Madison, Wisc. Sometime before that, he piloted commuters to LaGuardia Airport in a twin-engine turboprop. Cantrell also competed in several cross-country sled dog races for several years. The crisis management skills he learned …helped him hone his skills as an administrator…. Throughout, he still played regular gigs as a bass trombonist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Ballet and the Boston Lyric Opera…. ‘Having played at the highest level with the Boston Symphony, trained as a pilot and run two orchestras, he really has seen every side of it,’ said [Florida Orchestra] music director Michael Francis…. Cantrell succeeds Michael Pastreich, who in July announced his imminent resignation from the orchestra after 11 years as president and CEO.” Prior to the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Cantrell was executive director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, where he “led a public school outreach and a social media campaign while founding a youth orchestra.”
Posted December 20, 2018
