In Sunday’s (7/21) Denver Post, Joey Bunch reports, “A 61-year-old arts marketing consultant from Colorado Springs died after a medical crisis Saturday during the first day of the Courage Classic bicycle tour. The ride benefits Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, and Sunday evening a statement from chief executive Jim Shmerling identified the man as William F. ‘Rick’ Lester … Details about the incident were not immediately available from the hospital Sunday night.” Lester was founder and CEO of TRG Arts in Colorado Springs and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts. He had also taught in arts management programs at Yale University, the University of Wisconsin, and Drury University in Missouri, where he had received his bachelor’s degree in political science. Prior to founding TRG Lester served as executive director of the San Antonio Symphony and subsequently the Charlotte (N.C.) Symphony. He had earlier held the post of director of marketing at the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He had previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of the League of American Orchestras, and spoke and taught frequently at the League’s National Conferences and seminars. League President and CEO Jesse Rosen said, “Rick was a gifted and highly accomplished professional with a big heart, and deeply devoted to helping orchestras and the people who work in them. We will miss him and send our condolences to his family.”
Posted July 22, 2013
