The Score | Michelle Miller Burns: Minnesota Orchestra’s Next President and CEO

The Minnesota Orchestra has appointed Michelle Miller Burns president and CEO, effective September 1. She succeeds Kevin Smith, who will retire on August 31. Burns goes to Minnesota from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, where she is executive vice president for institutional advancement and chief operating officer. She previously served as the Dallas Symphony’s vice president of development and interim president and CEO. In the latter role, she successfully oversaw the orchestra’s ratification of a new three-year contract with its musicians, achieved a contributed revenue goal of $24 million, and ended the 2016-17 season with a balanced budget. Burns was born in Iowa, grew up in the Chicago area, and played violin in the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. She holds a bachelor of music in arts administration from Northwestern University, where she studied violin performance. She is a graduate of the League of American Orchestras’ Orchestra Management Fellowship Program, and completed the Chicago Management Institute program at the University of Chicago’s business school. Her orchestral career began in the administration of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where she held multiple positions over fifteen years. Burns’s initial contract with the Minnesota Orchestra is for five years.