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Posted: 03-Apr-25
Location: Anchorage, Alaska
Type: Full Time
Salary: $95,000 - $115,000
The Anchorage Symphony Orchestra welcomes applications and nominations for the position of Executive Director, available Summer 2025. Sherri Burkhart Reddick, who has served as Executive Director for 33 years, has announced her intention to retire. Her legacy is a strong and dynamic organization that is poised to welcome visionary new leadership and become an even more vibrant Orchestra far into the future.
About the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
Hailed as the musical cornerstone of its artistic community, the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra (ASO) has grown and flourished with the Anchorage community and celebrates its landmark 80th Season in 2025/26. The ASO is one of the state’s leading cultural institutions and arts producers, and has provided the musical foundation for countless other musical endeavors throughout the region. The Orchestra has shared music with hundreds of thousands of people over the decades, including generations of young people. The ASO has been and continues to be a companion to the community in times of celebration and of solace. In recognition of its leadership role in the community, the ASO was the first recipient of the Mayor’s Arts Award for Outstanding Arts Organizations.
The ASO has been described as “a cultural powerhouse for Alaska that is innovative, accessible, and always a bit unpredictable.” In the broadest sense, the ASO strives to provide Great Music for Every Life. Full orchestra concerts of works by great composers are the bedrock of the classical concert series, and the ASO also welcomes and seeks out opportunities to innovate, cross artistic genres, and honor musical traditions of various cultures.
The ASO’s core programming is a five-concert masterworks series with the full orchestra and renowned guest artists, as well as an imaginative pops series. The ASO was one of the first orchestras of any size to explore silver screen, multi-media, and cross-cultural programming as a way to reach a broader cross-section of the community, and has done so for decades. Commissioning through the Musica Nova program has also been central to the ASO’s mission for the past 19 seasons, and the ASO has introduced audiences to the work of many distinguished composers, including women and people of color.
The ASO has a robust education program and has developed new pathways for community engagement through the Music for My Neighbors program that provides access to concerts, education, and family events to students and youth, members of the military, clients of social service agencies, and others throughout the area. The Young People’s/Link Up Concerts (part of the Carnegie Hall education series), have filled the Atwood Concert Hall with local school children for decades. Both the Neighborhood and Family concerts are traditions that bring multi-generational families into the concert hall each season. And the ASO has collaborated with the Anchorage Concert Association to bring The Nutcracker to our community each Thanksgiving weekend for over 30 years. Finally, the ASO routinely implements best and emerging practices to reach new patrons and encourage successful audience development.
The ASO is governed by a Board of Directors and currently has an administrative staff of four. The Orchestra has an annual operating budget of $1.3 million and an endowment of approximately $4 million in a trust established solely for support of the ASO – including a recent gift of $1 million from Ed and Cathy Rasmuson. Elizabeth Schulze has completed her fourth season as the Music Director of the ASO, and she and the Board recently extended her contract for five more seasons.
About Anchorage
Located in southcentral Alaska on the Cook Inlet, Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska and the fourth largest city by area in the United States. The city has a population of 290,000; the greater metropolitan area is home to nearly 400,000, more than half of the state’s total population. Anchorage offers incomparable and unspoiled natural beauty with all the comforts of modern urban life. The city boasts sparkling glaciers, vast park land and trails, abundant wildlife, and dazzling northern lights.
Anchorage is also alive with the arts. In addition to the ASO, Anchorage is home to a professional opera company, two youth orchestras, art and history museums, choral and chamber music groups, and music and folk festivals. Further, the Anchorage Concert Association presents a rich and extensive offering of performances.
Alaska is home to more than 200 Federally-recognized tribes who speak more than 20 languages. One of Anchorage’s neighborhoods has the most linguistically diverse zip code in the entire Unites States, and the Anchorage School District (which the ASO partners with annually for important and innovative educational and community programming), serves families which speak over 100 languages.
The Position
The Executive Director (ED) provides leadership and vision that allow the ASO to fulfill its mission and achieve its goals for artistic excellence, financial sustainability, and engagement with its vibrant multicultural community. The ED is responsible and accountable for all aspects of the ASO’s management, including: strategic planning; board relations; artistic administration; budgeting and finance; fund raising; marketing and audience development; communications and public relations; collective bargaining and labor relations; concert production and operations; education programs; and community engagement.
The ED reports to the Board of Directors through the Board President, partners with the Music Director, and serves as a liaison to the musicians of the Orchestra. The ED recruits, motivates, and supervises the administrative staff comprised of Associate Director/Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Director of Development and Community Engagement, Manager of Patron Services and Business Operations, and the Contracted Accounting Specialist, an innovative shared-services position with the Anchorage Concert Association. The ED oversees all volunteers and contractors. The ED ensures a commitment to access, and belonging is a shared value among all who are a part of the ASO.
The ED works closely with the Music Director to achieve the ASO’s artistic goals. The ED oversees all aspects of concert production and operations including scheduling, engagement of artists, venue arrangements, technical requirements, and use of electronic media. The ED fosters a supportive environment that allows the Music Director, orchestra members, and guest artists to do their best work in service to the community.
The ED supervises the staff who direct all aspects of marketing and communications for the ASO, including institutional branding, ticket sales and audience development campaigns, social media presence, and public relations efforts. Further, the ED supervises the staff who take a leadership role in annual and capital fundraising from all sources, including individual, businesses and corporations, foundations, and government. The ED helps identify, cultivate, and solicit both individual and institutional donors and provides excellent stewardship for all gifts received. The ED and their staff give impetus to the fundraising efforts of the Board. Working with the staff and volunteers, the ED ensures the success of fundraising activities and special events.
The ED prepares and manages the annual operating budget of the ASO, supervises the personnel who monitor income, expenses, and cash flow on a regular basis, and facilitates the annual audit and tax reporting. The ED and their staff ensure that the ASO’s Treasurer, Finance Committee, and Board of Directors have timely and accurate information to inform their decision-making.
The ED, with the Music Director and Board President, is a principal spokesperson for the ASO throughout the community, the region, and the state. The ED establishes and maintains productive working relationships with other arts, education, and community organizations and actively seeks opportunities for collaborations and partnerships. The ED is a full-time resident and an active participant in the life of the Anchorage community.
The ideal candidate will have a record of success as the executive staff leader of a professional not-for-profit performing arts organization and/or relevant not-for-profit leadership experience. The successful candidate will combine a deep love for music and orchestras with a passion for sharing symphonic music with the widest possible audience. The candidate will have the demonstrated ability to provide leadership and management in the areas of fundraising, marketing, finance, operations, and artistic administration.
The successful candidate will have excellent communication, interpersonal, and diplomatic skills. The candidate will be a person of integrity with high ethical standards and an unwavering commitment to the complete mission of the ASO. The candidate will be nimble, flexible, and adaptable with a can-do, let’s-get-it-done attitude. The candidate will be able to handle multiple deadlines and competing priorities with grace and good humor. The successful candidate will be an excellent staff supervisor and will bring a big-picture vision to a small-office environment and inspire team members to reach and exceed their goals. The successful candidate will welcome the opportunity to contribute to the cultural life of the Anchorage community.
The successful candidate will be an enthusiastic fundraiser who can identify, cultivate, solicit, and provide excellent stewardship of gifts from individuals, foundations, businesses, corporations, and government agencies.
The successful candidate will demonstrate a strong personal commitment to the principles of access and belonging. The candidate will welcome the opportunity to expand the reach of the ASO throughout the region with orchestral masterworks concerts, pops concerts, chamber music programs, Young People’s Concerts, Family and Neighborhood programs, the annual performances of The Nutcracker, and more.
The successful candidate will welcome the opportunity to participate in and contribute to the cultural life of the Anchorage community, and help lead the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra into its next 80 years of providing Great Music for Every Life.