Location: Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts

Conference attendees can get in for free with their badge (general admission tickets for the public are also available for $25); no advanced reservation needed. It will be performed without intermission.

Program

Richard Strauss Burleske in D Minor for Piano and Orchestra
Igor Stravinsky The Firebird Suite (1919 version)

Artists

Franz Anton Krager, Music Director and Chief Conductor
Vadym Kholodenko, Piano, Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts Distinguished Artist

Speaker(s): Ann S. Graham, Immediate Past Executive Director, Texans for the Arts and Dr. Ahmad Sarmast, Founder and Director, Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM)

The Conference will conclude with a luncheon featuring Resilient Sounds, a Houston Symphony project—in partnership with Rice University, University of Houston, and Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston—celebrating the determination and hope of Houston’s refugee communities. Former composer-in-residence Jimmy López Bellido will share his vision in founding this innovative new program and introduce a live performance of What It Takes to Thrive by Patrick W. Lenz, with words by Logan Butcher and narration and acting by Muhammad Yunus-Khaerisman, conducted by Gonzalo Farias, Assistant Conductor, Houston Symphony.

We’ll also hear from Dr. Ahmad Naser Sarmast, Founding Director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), which fled Taliban-occupied Kabul for Lisbon, where the entire school community was not only granted asylum but also invited to resettle and rebuild.

No additional cost. The Closing Luncheon is included in your Conference registration!

The Closing Luncheon has been generously co-sponsored by Threshold Acoustics and YPTC (Your Part Time Controller).

Throughout the Conference, you’ll gather for stimulating meetings with those who best understand the challenges of your position: your peers. Whether you’re working at an orchestra as an executive director, board member, volunteer, staff, or musician, there is learning designed specifically for you.

Find more information about constituency meetings.

Constituency sessions have been generously sponsored by the following:

• Composers: The Aaron Copland Fund for Music and Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation

• Development: Bennett Direct

• Executive Directors, Groups 3-4: Broadway In Love

• Finance: AccountingWare

• General Managers & Operations: Kirkegaard; additional support provided by Boomerang Carnets

• Marketing, Groups 1-2: VATIC

• Orchestra Board Members: Arts Consulting Group

• Students: Hood-Barrow Foundation

• Youth Orchestra Division: ACFEA Tour Consultants

Speaker(s): Elisha Johnson, Associate Director of Audience Engagement, Arkansas Symphony; Eric Nelson, Vice President of Global Partnerships, TRG Arts; Michael Smith, Executive Director, Charleston Symphony; and Josh Tague, Director of Marketing & Communications, Omaha Symphony

Join TRG Arts' Eric Nelson and leaders from three orchestras as they discuss strategies in audience engagement and development. The session will begin with a presentation by TRG Arts, highlighting key audience trends from the Arts & Culture Benchmark, and then transition to an interactive dialogue with the marketing leaders. They will share their experiences and approaches in connecting with growing audiences, offering insights and results in the evolving dynamics of orchestral audience engagement.

This session is made possible by a generous grant from The Wallace Foundation.

Speaker(s): Amy Chung, Executive Director, Houston Youth Symphony; Jackson Guillén, Coda Program Director, Houston Youth Symphony; Anni Hochhalter, Executive Director, WindSync; and Kara LaMoure, Bassoonist and Artistic Director, WindSync

Now in its eighth year of collaboration, Houston Youth Symphony (HYS) partners with the professional wind quintet, WindSync, in a yearly school residency and performance with the HYS Coda Program, Houston’s first after-school El Sistema-inspired program. This session will discuss how this mutually beneficial partnership was formed and identify the core elements of the wind quintet residency that enhances the musical learning of young string players by performing culturally relevant repertoire. A commissioning element offers the opportunity to feature young diverse composers while presenting repertoire that addresses various needs of the musicians, including cultural relevance.

Participants will learn to think flexibly about mixing instrumentation and performance levels in working with young string players. The session will include hearing from various partners and youth Coda Program musicians, with a performance of a commissioned work by Nicky Sohn.

This session has been generously sponsored by MKI Artists. Additional support made possible by a grant from the Hood-Barrow Foundation.

Moderator(s): Rebecca Cásarez, Senior Consultant, RAINN and Danise Kimball, Senior Manager of Consulting, RAINN

Speaker(s): Catherine Beeson, Assistant Principal Viola, Colorado Symphony; Aaron Flagg, Chair and Associate Director, Juilliard Jazz Studies, The Juilliard School; Alan Mason, Board Chair Elect, League of American Orchestras; and Rochelle Skolnick, Director of Symphonic Services and Special Counsel, American Federation of Musicians of the US and Canada

This session is designed to deepen understanding of sexual misconduct and how the orchestral community can acknowledge and heal from past harm and work to shift systems and culture to prevent future sexual misconduct. Representatives of RAINN Consulting Group will provide subject matter expertise on the victim experience, trauma-informed practices, and elements of a comprehensive approach including discussion of reporting barriers, power dynamics, moral injury and institutional betrayal, and best practices for prevention and response. Additional panelists will add perspective from the context of the orchestra.

This session and The Catalyst Fund is made possible by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation.

Speaker(s): Doug McLennan, Editor, ArtsJournal.com and Simon Woods, President and CEO, League of American Orchestras

Part 1 of AI and the Future of Classical Music: How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Creative Fields

Starting in Houston, and continuing through the second half of 2024, the League of American Orchestras and ArtsJournal will present a series of conversations that will dive into the opportunities of generative artificial intelligence and address the profound implications it has for all those who work in classical music and the arts more broadly.

In conversation with League President and CEO, Simon Woods, Doug McClennan will lay out the stakes for artists, orchestras, arts organizations, and the creative industries generally, identifying major challenges, opportunities and shifts in thinking that AI poses.

AI and the Future of Classical Music: How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Creative Fields is presented by the League of American Orchestras in partnership with ArtsJournal. This live session in Houston will be followed by three webinars during the fall of 2024, each featuring special guests in conversation with Doug:

1. How AI will transform the business of orchestras.

2. AI and artistic opportunities.

3. The AI policy landscape – intellectual property, machine learning, plus lessons from the Big Tech revolution of the 1990s.

Join us for these important discussions about one of the defining issues of our time.

This session has generously been sponsored by MSA.

Speaker(s): Zoe Miller, Associate, Oliver Wyman and Bob Orr, Partner, Oliver Wyman

It is a popular belief that American orchestras are bound by a single traditional business model. A recent study conducted by management consulting firm Oliver Wyman in partnership with the Houston Symphony aims to dispel this myth, providing evidence that there are four distinct orchestra business model archetypes, each characterized by unique revenue models, value propositions, and activities.

In this presentation, Bob Orr and Zoe Miller will present their findings from this analysis, providing a comprehensive view of the key attributes of these diverse business models tied with industry examples and financial results. Drawing on this analysis, they will also demonstrate how orchestras can leverage this data to shape their own business model and drive strategic decision-making.

Interested in learning more and becoming a League donor? Stop by the Donor Engagement Center to chat with our Development team and make your gift to League Giving Days!

Stop by the Exhibit Hall to meet with your business partners and colleagues. Be sure to pop in during networking breaks throughout the week.

Come to the Exhibit Hall to grab a cup of coffee, network with your colleagues, and visit with your business partners.

When you first arrive at Conference, please stop at the Registration Area, located in the Exhibit Hall, to pick up your badge and Conference materials. Feel free to visit us again throughout Conference to say hello, ask questions, and let us know how your experience is going!

Bennett Direct is the Official Name Badge Sponsor of the League of American Orchestras.

Location: Lynn Wyatt Square (600 Louisiana St.)
Transportation will be provided.

Following the Houston Symphony’s performance, be sure to join us for the Tune-Up Party, which will take place at the stunning Lynn Wyatt Square (600 Louisiana St.) in Houston’s Theater District right across the street from Jones Hall. Enjoy live DJ performances and food trucks offering a taste of Houston's diverse cuisine. Round trip transportation will be provided from the Marriott Marquis Houston. All Conference registrants are invited — just bring your badge and enjoy this vibrant night!

Location: Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts

Round trip transportation will be provided from the Marriott Marquis Houston.

Concert tickets can be added on to your Conference registration until May 13, 2024. After that date, please purchase directly from the Houston Symphony.

About This Concert

At the Conference concert on Friday evening, June 7, a scandalous play by Oscar Wilde meets the explosive musical originality and visceral story-telling of Richard Strauss. The result is one of the most shocking and thrilling works in the operatic repertoire.

Experience it firsthand with Music Director Juraj Valčuha and the Houston Symphony.

The Conference Tune-Up Party will follow.

Read an in-depth analysis of Richard Strauss’ Salome by Alex Ross in The New Yorker.

Artists

Juraj Valčuha, Conductor
Jennifer Holloway, Soprano (Salome)
John Daszak, Tenor (Herodes)
Linda Watson, Mezzo-Soprano (Herodias)
Mark S. Doss, Baritone (Jochanaan)
Issachah Savage, Tenor (Narraboth)
Adam Larsen, Creative Director

Location: Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Transportation will be provided.

Moderator: Dr. Jason Oby, Professor of Music, Texas Southern University

Panelists: Dr. Kathryn Caton, Lecturer of Musicology, Moores School of Music, University of Houston; Adam Larsen, Creative Director, Hum-Bar; and Dr. Alison Maggart, Assistant Professor of Instruction in Musicology, Butler School of Music, The University of Texas at Austin

Join a panel discussion to explore the musical history of Richard Strauss' Salome, a complicated opera both musically and psychologically. Salome presents many thematic challenges for modern audiences, including depictions of violence and sexual violence, inherent racism, and antisemitism. For more background, read this article by Alex Ross that recently published in The New Yorker, which delves into some of these issues.

To thoughtfully address these sensitive topics and their depiction in Salome in the context of musical art, the Houston Symphony has invited three scholars and the production’s creative director to join a panel discussion at Jones Hall which will be open to all League Conference attendees.

Enjoy dinner on your own or with colleagues. Nearby dining options are listed in Things to Do in Houston.

Facilitator(s): Lorin Green, Community Relations Manager, Seattle Symphony; Julia Jacobsen, Creative Marketing Manager, Boulanger Initiative; Lindsey Nova, Executive Director, Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestras; Max Stephenson, Operations Manager, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra Youth Orchestra; and Lauren Zwonik, Graduate Assistantship in Arts Administration, Las Vegas Philharmonic

We all know that younger generations are consuming information and your marketing efforts in ways that we are still trying to understand. Learn from members of the League’s Student Leadership Council about how the next generation is consuming your marketing efforts through examples of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Bring your own samples or pull out your laptop in the roundtable second part of the session to see what suggestions Student Leadership Council members have for your website or marketing campaign in real time.

Made possible by a grant from the Hood-Barrow Foundation.

Facilitator(s): Jay Gilman, Assistant Vice President, CCS Fundraising and Jacob Tudor, Patron Engagement and Crescendo Club Manager, Nashville Symphony

Millennials and Gen Z have the potential to become your orchestra’s greatest champions, and the work of engaging them in governance can and should start now. In this session, explore generational trends in philanthropy and hear directly from Nashville Symphony staff and Associate Board alumni, including those who have advanced to the Board of Directors.

Discuss how you can effectively involve younger generations in your board and share your own experiences in this critical work with those who are just getting started.

Facilitator(s): Bob Swaney, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, RSC Associates and Morgan Walker, Executive Director, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra

Orchestras require a robust planned giving program that makes a lasting impact, yet they don’t always commit the attention and resources necessary for a sustained effort. Other organizational priorities compete for attention, and the stamina necessary for success slowly diminishes.

Explore a simple, repeatable, and effective approach that will not only help you successfully launch a planned giving program, but also sustain it in the months and years ahead. And come ready to share your own examples of challenges and successes in your orchestra’s planned giving program.

Facilitator(s): Brian Baxter, Executive Director, Quad City Symphony Orchestra; Caitlin Lingle Bishop, Director of Marketing, Quad City Symphony Orchestra and Chelsea Sammons, Director of Education and Community Engagement, Quad City Symphony Orchestra

Explore how orchestras can evolve to be more inclusive, youth-focused, and community-centric, all while ensuring financial sustainability. Through a multi-pronged approach to audience development, emphasizing inclusivity, youth engagement, and robust community partnerships, discuss how orchestral music can be accessible to all, especially underserved and diverse populations.

Highlighting the Quad City Symphony Orchestra’s youth-centric initiatives, from Students @ Symphony, which invites school music groups to Masterworks performances, to the formation of the Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles Concert Club, discover how to nurture the next generation of orchestra enthusiasts and reinforce your community-centric entity, bringing people together through music. Discuss strategies that can help you deepen community ties, cultivate future subscribers, and ensure enduring relevance and growth.

Facilitator(s): Vanessa Gardner, Vice President of Marketing & Operations, Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts; Jamie Leigh Sampson, Co-Owner and Composer, ADJ•ective New Music; Merwin Siu, Artistic Administrator, Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts; Andrew Martin Smith, Co-Owner and Composer, ADJ•ective New Music; and Zak Vassar, President and CEO, Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts

Orchestras can expand impact and communities through multi-composer commissions. The Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) and ADJ•ective New Music have an artistic partnership that has developed over the past 14 seasons of music making in Toledo and beyond. Their collaborations have included marathon concerts at the Toledo Museum of Art and contemporary music festivals across the Northwest Ohio city.

Come discuss the logistics and benefits of working with composers’ collectives and where to look for such communities.

Facilitator(s): Michelle Cann, Piano

The ethnocultural diversity of our nation is among our greatest strengths, but representation among performers, composers, and audience members of classical music has not reflected that diversity. The programming of works by underrepresented composers can educate all of us and empower our next generation.

Discover the rich repertoire by composers whose extraordinary music was either neglected in their lifetimes or abandoned after their deaths — and come prepared to share your own repertoire ideas to help the whole orchestra field continue to enrich its programming.

Made possible by a generous grant from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

Facilitator(s): Alan Brown, Managing Principal, WolfBrown and Christina Bellevue, Senior Marketing Manager, National Arts Centre

At the 2023 League Conference, many orchestra managers expressed the view that different approaches to creating value for customers are needed to foster affinity for the art and loyalty to the organization. New research from the National Arts Centre of Canada and other organizations suggests important opportunities to diversify the types of relationships that orchestras have with their customers.

This session will delve into research on taste, affinity, and loyalty, and summarize a recent scan of experiments with new types of products, relationships, and sales platforms. For example, younger consumers tend to express affinity for artists, formats, and spaces, and older consumers are more likely to hold feelings of loyalty towards institutions. While the subscription model will continue to be a desirable product for the foreseeable future, it is unable to capture the considerable passion for music that circulates amongst those who aren’t interested in subscribing.

Our conversation will establish the logic and argument for innovative new models for educational, social, and other types of relationships, and allow participants to share approaches that are promising in their own environments.

Facilitator(s): Mark Bailes, Marketing Revenue Manager, Houston Symphony; Justin Stenberg, Young Associates Council Vice Chair, Houston Symphony; Kirby Lodholz, Chair, Young Associates Council, Houston Symphony; Sherry Rodriguez, Corporate Relations Manager and Board Liaison, Houston Symphony Orchestra; and Katie Salvatore, Development Officer, Houston Symphony

The Gen X, X-ennial, Millennial, and Gen Z generations are vital to the future of symphony orchestras. Join us to learn about the data behind giving trends and share the ways you and your teams are forming or expanding your young professionals program.

The session will also feature a case study on the Houston Symphony’s Young Associates Council, a philanthropic membership group with over 100 members that is actively engaged in all areas affecting the Houston Symphony from fundraising, subscription sales, board service, education and community engagement initiatives, and more.

Facilitator(s): Elizabeth Blaufox, Director of Promotion, Boosey & Hawkes; Alecia Lawyer, Founder, Artistic Director, and Principal Oboist, ROCO; Vanessa Rose, Executive Director, American Composers Forum; Nina Shekhar, Composer, Mannes School of Music (The New School), Princeton University; and Curtis Stewart, Artistic Director, American Composers Orchestra

On July 4, 2026, our nation will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. Orchestras are thinking about how they and their communities are commemorating and analyzing this historic milestone in their programming.

Join this conversation to discuss programming ideas and share your thoughts as we look ahead toward that year and the future we want to create for the next generation and beyond.

Facilitator(s): Roger Sametz, Chief Executive Officer, Sametz Blackstone Associates and Charlie Wade, Consultant, Duke Ellington Orchestra

One of the few positive after-effects of the pandemic is that we’ve “broken the fourth wall” and brought our audiences into our organizations in an unvarnished, genuine manner we might not have considered before. We’ve continued to learn critical lessons about justice, equity, and systemic marginalization in our communities, and to face tough questions: who doesn't feel welcome in our (virtual and physical) spaces? How can we make our orchestras more inviting to more audiences? How can our storytelling find more diverse eyes, ears, hearts, and minds, and be relevant to those who may not think we are?

Your orchestra’s brand can play a powerful role in extending an authentic welcome to diverse audiences in your community — culturally, racially, economically, demographically — if you craft and manage your brand in an intentional and thoughtful way. Through this interactive and case study-filled session, join us to discuss the process of building a compelling, welcoming brand that meets your constituents where they are.

Facilitator(s): Albert Martínez-Fernández, Budget Manager, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Explore how you can use design thinking to effectively promote EDI in your orchestra’s community engagement programs. Participants will discuss the common approaches used in designing and executing community engagement programs in arts organizations, assess their limitations in achieving EDI progress, and examine how design thinking can help address these shortcomings.

Through a "Community Co-Designed Approach," a new framework that leverages design thinking and user-centered methodologies, you will better understand and address the unique needs and values of diverse communities. This innovative approach will help you integrate EDI principles into your community engagement initiatives more effectively.

Join colleagues for a conversation that inspires change and guides orchestras towards inclusive, impactful, and meaningful community engagement work.

Facilitator(s): Jackson Cooper, Adjunct Professor, Arts Leadership, Seattle University, UNC-Greensboro

Building authentic partnerships that drive mission and revenue is critical to all American orchestras. By centering relationships within our fundraising practices for staff, executive directors, music directors, and board leadership, we can maintain focus and momentum while crafting a community-centric model of inclusion.

Through case studies of sustainable and inclusive fundraising strategies, discuss the evolving challenges and opportunities you and your leaders are facing in fundraising.

Speaker(s): Dr. Durell Cooper, Founder and CEO, Cultural Innovation Group; Douglas Hagerman, Board Chair, League of American Orchestras; and Donna Walker-Kuhne, President, Walker International Communications Group, Inc

Friday afternoon’s general session will lead off with the League’s Annual Meeting, followed by an interactive session led by Donna Walker-Kuhne and Dr. Durell Cooper on the creation of strategies that integrate community engagement, inclusion, and marketing into new holistic approaches to audience development. It will cover the need to have courageous conversations with internal and external stakeholders, the importance of building safe spaces for communities in our halls, emerging approaches to audience and revenue growth, and bringing adjacent organizational disciplines such as artistic planning, marketing, and community engagement together to work ambitiously toward newly aligned goals.

Orchestra teams are encouraged to sit together. Re-Envisioning Audiences will include group discussions, collaborative activities, and Q&As. We will conclude with a summary of key takeaways, distilling the insights shared and providing actionable points for participants to implement in their audience engagement efforts. This session promises to be an enriching experience, offering valuable insights and practical strategies for organizations seeking to build the inclusive audience of the future.

This session is made possible by a generous grant from The Wallace Foundation.

Join Opus 3 Artists at Discovery Green as they present a lunchtime concert by pianists Nick Luby and Susan Zhang from the stage of The Concert Truck.  Sandwiches will be available for purchase from The Lake House.

The Concert Truck is a mobile music venue that strengthens communities by redefining the concert experience and making live music accessible to all. It engages diverse communities and audiences nationwide with thoughtful, timely programming, and works with arts organizations of all sizes to build a critical presence in their communities.

Impassioned by their love for music and belief in its emotional power, pianists Nick Luby and Susan Zhang converted a 16-foot box truck into a fully functioning mobile concert hall, complete with lights, sound system, and piano. Since then, The Concert Truck has toured across the country, presenting concerts in city streets, music and arts festivals, schools, neighborhoods, parks… anywhere you can think to park a truck. Recent performances of The Concert Truck have been presented in conjunction with the Dallas Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Virginia Arts Festival.

This presentation has generously been sponsored by Opus 3 Artists.