Michelle Miller Burns, current president and CEO of the Minnesota Orchestra, will head the Dallas Symphony beginning in September. Photo by Josh Kohanek.
In the June 28 Star Tribune (Minneapolis), Jenna Ross writes, “The Minnesota Orchestra’s president and CEO is leaving for the same job in Texas. Michelle Miller Burns, who has led Minnesota’s largest performing arts organization since 2018, will take charge of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, where she held several leadership roles before coming to Minneapolis, the Minnesota Orchestra announced Friday…. She starts with Dallas in September. The Minnesota Orchestra board will soon start a search for her successor. Popular with board members and musicians, Burns kept the orchestra playing—outdoors, on TV and radio and via livestream—during a pandemic that silenced many performing arts organizations. She oversaw the orchestra during difficult financial times, posting several record-breaking deficits before pulling its budget into the black in the most recent fiscal year. And she led the nonprofit as it searched for and found a new music director, bringing Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård to Minneapolis…. Burns, who was born in Iowa and grew up in the Chicago area, will succeed Kim Noltemy, Dallas’ chief executive since 2018, who is headed to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. During her time in Dallas, Burns’ roles included interim president and CEO, chief operating officer and vice president of development.”
