Orchestra Exec John Kieser Named President and CEO of Honens International Piano Competition

“John Kieser, longtime executive VP and provost for the New World Symphony [and] current director of partnerships for Idagio, will relocate en famille from Germany to Calgary to become president and CEO of Honens, a triennial piano competition and summer festival,” writes Susan Elliott in Tuesday’s (4/25) Musical America (subscription required). “He arrives in July, succeeding Neil Edwards, now CEO of Peggy’s Cove for Arts and Culture in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Marketing and Communications Director Amanda Smith has been serving as interim since November. Pianist Jon Kimura Parker remains artistic director. Kieser, who is from Canada, has a long and impressive career in arts administration and especially arts media. Prior to New World, he was with the San Francisco Symphony for 30 years, overseeing all of Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas’s pioneering forays, from the Keeping Score websites, PBS programs, and DVD series to the MTT Files, the creation of SFS Media and the Live Recording Agreement with AFM, as well as the SoundBox installation space. His tenure at New World, where he still serves as media consultant, is equally impressive.”