Category: Who’s In

SHANE JEWELL has been appointed executive director of Oklahoma’s OK Mozart International Festival, effective August 3. For the past seven years he has worked for Celebrity Attractions as company manager, technical director, and advertising director for various national touring companies. Jewell is also co-founder and marketing director of the Big Wheels Charity Race in Tulsa, which benefits a local cancer organization. He is a graduate of Oklahoma State University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis in film studies.

Posted July 31, 2009

Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc., an Indiana- and Missouri-based firm specializing in the implementation of fund-raising strategies for arts and other cultural institutions, has announced the appointment of SCOTT GIFFEN as senior consultant in its Springfield (Mo.) office. Giffen worked most recently at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, where he held dual roles as director of institutional support and partnerships and as director of development for The Learning Community. He had earlier served as executive director of Young Audiences of St. Louis; as development director of the theater company Stages St. Louis; and as executive director of Gash/Voigt Dance Theatre in St. Louis. Giffen received a bachelor’s degree in business management from Illinois’s Greenville College in 1999, and furthered his studies through a graduate seminar in visual and performing arts administration at New York University.

Posted July 28, 2009

Hunter College of the City University of New York has announced the appointment of REUBEN BLUNDELL as music director and conductor of the Hunter Symphony, effective this fall. Blundell is completing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Eastman School of Music, where he has studied conducting with Neil Varon and violin with Zvi Zeitlin. He received additional conducting training in workshops led by the Conductors Guild, the League of American Orchestras, the Bakersfield (Calif.) Symphony Orchestra, the Naples (Fla.) Philharmonic, and Symphony Australia. Blundell was a violin fellow at Tanglewood Music Center and subsequently in the New World Symphony. While at NWS he was encouraged by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas to pursue a career in conducting, and was named music director of the CGCC Young Musicians’ Orchestra in Coral Gables, Fla. Blundell is a native of Australia, where he performed as a regular substitute violinist with the Melbourne, Queensland, Sydney, and Tasmanian symphony orchestras.

Posted July 28, 2009

The Seattle Symphony has announced the appointment of THOMAS HONG as the orchestra’s Douglas F. King Assistant Conductor, effective in September. He will succeed CAROLYN KUAN, who assumed that post in September 2006, was subsequently promoted to associate conductor, and concluded her tenure with the orchestra at the end of the 2008-09 season. Hong served most recently as associate conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and as assistant conductor of the Orchestra National de France. Previous appointments include assistant conductor, Curtis Opera Theatre; music director, Delaware County (Pa.) Youth Orchestra; and visiting assistant professor, Haverford College. In 2006 he helped to found the Youth Symphony for United Nations, based in Greenwich, Conn. Hong trained in piano in his native Korea and at Philadelphia Biblical University, subsequently earning a master’s degree in choral conducting from Temple University and an artist’s diploma in orchestral conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music.

Thomas Hong photo by Richard W. Rodriguez

Posted July 24, 2009

South Carolina’s Greenville Symphony Association has appointed ANNE GENEVIEVE GALLIVAN development director. A native of Greenville, Gallivan has worked with The United Way of Greenville County, the American Heart Association, and in the Atlanta branch of Ernst & Young. In early 2009 she launched ViewFinder Marketing, a boutique firm specializing in marketing-related strategic planning, donor and client development, and project management coaching and consulting. An alumna of the University of Alabama, she is a lifestyle and artistic documentary photographer, writer, and painter.  

Posted July 24, 2009

Virginia Tech, based in Blacksburg, Va., has announced the appointment of RUTH WAALKES as executive director of the university’s new Center for the Arts, effective in late September. Activities at the center will take place in a complex of yet-to-be-constructed and renovated facilities housing a 1,300-seat performance hall, an art galley, and teaching and research spaces that will include a creative technologies lab, a collaborative performance lab, and a communications studio. Construction is projected to begin next year and to be completed by 2013. Waalkes is currently director of artistic initiatives at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, a post she has held since 2002. Prior to that she worked in the University of Maryland’s departments of corporate/foundation relations and alumni affairs. She has also served as director of programs for Virginia’s Arts Council of Fairfax. Waalkes holds a bachelor’s degree in theater and drama from the University of Michigan. 

Posted July 21, 2009

The Oklahoma Philharmonic Society, governing board of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, has elected STEVEN C. AGEE president for 2009-10. Agee is a professor of economics at Oklahoma City University and director of the Economic Research & Policy Institute at OCU’s Meinders School of Business.

Posted July 17, 2009

California’s Stockton Symphony Association has announced a new president, MICHAEL WHELAN. A member of the association’s board since 2002, and designated as president-elect last year, Whelan took office July 1, 2009. He currently serves as vice president and manager of the Stockton Wealth Management office of Bank of the West.  

Posted July 17, 2009

Nicholas Weege has been named director of development operations at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He is a 2009 graduate of the Orchestra Management Fellowship Program of the League of American Orchestras, and prior to beginning his OMFP training in June 2008 had worked in the Dallas Symphony’s Development Department and also as an operations intern. Weege holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in viola performance from Southern Methodist University. He has performed in several ensembles including the National Repertory Orchestra, where he also served as assistant orchestra manager.

Posted July 14, 2009

The Colburn School in Los Angeles has appointed SEL KARDAN president and chief executive officer, effective in September 2009. In this capacity he will oversee both The Colburn School of Performing Arts and The Colburn Conservatory of Music. Kardan has served as president and CEO of The Music Institute of Chicago since 2005. Prior experience includes executive director posts with Baltimore’s Shriver Hall Concert Series and with Heifetz International Music Institute in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. He holds a degree in viola performance from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, has performed extensively as a chamber musician, and has served on the faculties of Peabody Conservatory, Shenandoah University, and the University of Maryland.

Posted July 14, 2009