Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

October 30, 2006

Behind the music | Ari Solotoff is the new executive director of the Portland Symphony Orchestra

By Whit Richardson

The Portland Symphony Orchestra's first concert of the season on October 10 was a powerful experience for Ari Solotoff, the PSO's new, 26-year-old executive director. As the musicians filled Merrill Auditorium with the notes of Brahms' Symphony No. 2, Solotoff looked around the audience and was reminded why he was in the classical music business in the first place. "It was extraordinary," Solotoff says, sitting behind his desk in the PSO's administrative offices in Portland's Time & Temperature building. "To see the audience's reaction was just so rewarding for me and only confirmed exactly why I knew I wanted to be here and what I thought was possible for the future."

The future of the organization is very much on Solotoff's mind. His arrival at the PSO in August came during a time of major transition for the orchestra: Last season's end saw its veteran executive director, Jane Hunter, and musical director, Toshiyuki Shimada, depart after 18 and 20 years, respectively. With Solotoff now on board, the search for a new musical director is a major item on the orchestra's agenda.

The executive director's position at the PSO, one of about 200 professional orchestras in the country, held "instant appeal" for Solotoff for a number of reasons. For one, he says, the PSO is one of the best orchestras in the country located in a relatively small market. Also, since the PSO is searching for a new musical director, he saw an opportunity to help shape the symphony's artistic vision. "In my mind there's really no more exciting event for an orchestra than to choose its new artistic leadership," Solotoff says. "The musical director in many ways is the face for the arts in a community and that individual becomes a spokesperson, becomes the embodiment of our aspirations."

Solotoff sees his position of executive director, on the other hand, as more of a support position, making sure the artistic vision of the musical director can happen. To do that, he says, requires "as much business savvy and financially sound practices as possible."

Despite his young age, Solotoff has sharpened those skills at a number of orchestras around the country, most recently during a one-year stint as chief operating officer of the Louisville Orchestra in Kentucky. He graduated from the American Symphony Orchestra League's prestigious Orchestra Management Fellowship Program, after which he was hired as executive director of the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra in Florida, where he oversaw the completion of its first $1.7 million capital campaign and championed the $9 million renovation of a city-owned theater. (He also is an accomplished oboist with a degree in classical languages from the University of California at Berkeley.)

In Portland, one of his first administrative challenges also is an opportunity, he says. Besides the ongoing search for a new musical director, there are two more important vacancies to fill: director of operations and director of development. Until he fills those spots, he's working shorthanded. But the vacancies offer another way to create a new team to shape the PSO's direction.

Another challenge that the PSO shares with orchestras everywhere is, of course, fundraising. Donors typically cover approximately 40% of the PSO's $3 million operating budget, but Solotoff says a "crescendo" in the fundraising effort is especially needed before the new musical director's arrival. "We want that person to come in and say, 'Wow, look at what a great job everybody did,'" Solotoff says. "We don't want to be in a position where that person arrives and we're still struggling to get by day to day."

He doesn't see fundraising as a goal in itself, however. It's only a tactic to make possible the music that Solotoff sees as an important piece of the greater Portland community. "For me that's the most important thing: that the concerts that we produce are engaging and meaningful and memorable," Solotoff says, "Everything else flows from there."

Sign up for Enews

Mainebiz web partners

Most Recent

Most Recent

Comments

Order a PDF