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MUSIC DIRECTOR SEARCH
Click here to download the Position Guide
Organization:
Longwood Symphony Orchestra, the acclaimed 100-musician orchestra of Boston’s medical community with a 29-year history of artistic and community achievement, seeks a dynamic new musical leader on a part-time basis.
Founded in 1982, the Longwood Symphony enters its third decade in 2011/12 with national and international recognition for its unique dual mission of fostering musical excellence while raising funds for health-related nonprofit organizations in the Greater Boston area. In 2007, the Orchestra won the League of American Orchestras’ MetLife Excellence in Community Engagement Award, and in 2011, the Orchestra will receive the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s highest honor, the Commonwealth Award, for its longstanding contributions to medicine and music.
The Orchestra’s flagship public performance program is its “Healing Art of Music™” initiative, which celebrates its 20th Anniversary in 2011/12 and presents 4 subscription concerts annually in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, as well as a summer performance in Boston’s open-air Hatch Shell on the Esplanade. Each concert benefits a different charity, and since its inception, the program has raised close to $1 million for its partners while presenting challenging works from across the symphonic spectrum, including, in recent seasons, Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass and excerpts from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, among others. The Orchestra has also toured internationally, including a 2008 tour to the United Kingdom to present both musical and medical programs.
The Orchestra’s “LSO On Call” chamber music program takes small ensembles into hospices, hospitals and rehabilitation centers for intimate performances, while its “Community Conversations” effort organizes diverse public presentations on the many intersections between music and medicine, including recent “Crossing the Corpus Callosum” international symposia which brought together some of America’s leading thinkers on music and medicine for public discourse, research and discussion.
The Orchestra is run by a volunteer Board of Directors with an annual budget of approximately $225,000. The Music Director will be a key member of the executive leadership team, both on- and offstage, with a special personal ability to lead and inspire non-professional musicians. The Orchestra’s current rehearsal schedule requires a Music Director with the availability to lead weekly rehearsals in downtown Boston for 8-10 weeks prior to each concert performance.
JOB Duties:
The Music Director reports to the Board of Directors and will conduct the 4 subscription series and other performances, as well as weekly rehearsals, in Boston; in active collaboration with the Board, s/he will propose an exciting, inspiring annual season repertoire and proposed guest artists that fall within budgetary guidelines; in conjunction with staff and volunteers, s/he will oversee musical and personnel matters, including auditions, personnel, and seating rotation.
S/he will take an active and energetic role in fundraising, community engagement, and external relations, including such tasks as accompanying representatives on fundraising visits and attending public events as an enthusiastic spokesperson and advocate for LSO and its medical as well as musical mission. Finally, s/he will design and present “meet-the-artist” talks and other artistic engagement programs where appropriate.
Qualifications:
The successful applicant will be a mature conductor with exceptional musicianship and conducting skills, and demonstrated experience in crafting subscription seasons of interesting and diverse musical programs. S/he will be a dynamic, motivated, communicative and enthusiastic individual who can relate well to the Orchestra’s highly educated medical practitioner members and patrons, as well as to the Orchestra’s medical beneficiary audiences, which range from highly sophisticated orchestra-goers to patrons and children attending their first classical concerts. S/he will be a natural communicator with past success in orchestra- and audience-building, and be able to relate well and feel comfortable with individuals from many diverse backgrounds.
Compensation & TIMELINE:
Compensation is commensurate with experience. The successful applicant is anticipated to begin in the 2012/13 season.
Application Process: CLOSING DATE: March 15, 2011.
Applicants should be available to participate, if so invited, as guest conductors in the Orchestra’s 2011/12 subscription season, whose dates are October 1, 2011; December 3, 2011; March 17, 2012; and May 26, 2012.
The Longwood Symphony’s standard strength is 3.3.3.2 – 4.3.3.1 – Timp+3 – Hp - Pf – Str. 14.12.10.8.6: For initial search consideration, please email a single PDF document containing cover letter, resume, references, web audio/video links (URL’s), and a sample 4-program subscription season repertoire including 1 or more program/s with soloist/s (indicating any soloists with whom you have an existing relationship) to: mdsearch@longwoodsymphony.org
Click here for a list of LSO's concert programming, 2000-present.
Please do not mail DVDs; PLEASE DO NOT MAIL HARD COPY APPLICATIONS. Applicants selected for second round consideration will be requested to submit DVDs.
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