“Charlie Wade, longtime marketing guru of the American orchestra world, has decided to step down from his post as VP of marketing for the Philadelphia Orchestra,” writes Susan Elliott in Friday’s (7/8) Musical America (subscription required). “Even before the pandemic, he had been a non-resident staffer, commuting regularly from Seattle where he and his family made their home when he was appointed Sr. VP of marketing and business operations for the Seattle Symphony in 2014. After he left that orchestra, in 2019, he turned to consulting and Philadelphia became one of his clients. ‘I had only intended to work for a few months …’ he writes in an email, [but] ‘it was such an interesting challenge and such great people to work with … that it was hard to not to see it through a little longer.’ Wade was committed to seeing the completion of the merger between the orchestra and the Kimmel Center…. The orchestra apparently will not search for a successor. Instead, it hired Geoffrey Cohen in May to serve as associate marketing VP, serving under Crystal Brewe, chief marketing and audience experience officer…. Cohen previously worked with the Philadelphia Orchestra for nearly ten years.”
Change font size
