The League of American Orchestras Conference at NPAC
Check this page regularly for updates to the day-to-day Conference schedule. All contents subject to change.
Items with an asterisk (*) indicate advance registration and/or additional fee required.
Visit the calendar for a quick view of all events.
11:00am – 5:00PM
9:00am – 5:00pm
Location TBA
On Tuesday, June 10 programs organized by National Arts Strategies (NAS) will provide insight and tools for building partnerships, funding opportunities and negotiating skills. Registration for these seminars is open to all attendees on a first-come, first served basis. Click here for more information about NAS, the programs, and the faculty.
Today, the most creative initiatives are being achieved through partnerships. How do you identify the partnerships that are most likely to succeed? What are the secrets to creating those relationships efficiently? Learn frameworks for analyzing your “network” and targeting the right partners at the right time. Professor Powell is a leading expert in the areas of network theory and organizational research. Click here for more information and bio.
Negotiation is an art - and a science. Even the most experienced leaders get surprised by the complex psychology and group behaviors that drive negotiations. Enhance your ability to create negotiated solutions that support healthy long-term relationships; achieve your goals, negotiate successful coalitions, and learn to work together to “grow the pie.” Professor Neale is a leading expert in negotiation. Click here for more information and bio.
Corporate sponsorships and philanthropy are harder to find in today's world of strategic corporate philanthropy. Nonprofit organizations are going beyond traditional approaches to develop strategic “cause marketing” relationships with corporations. Explore frameworks to win more attention and financial support from corporations, create an optimal fundraising strategy that includes cause marketing partnerships, identify in advance the most promising cause marketing partners, and design an effective cause marketing program with a corporation. Internationally recognized expert in marketing strategies for mission-driven organizations Kash Rangan leads this program. Click here for more information and bio.
8:00am – 12:30pm
Hyatt Regency Denver Hotel
Let us help you invest in the future! The League of American Orchestras is committed to recognizing and encouraging effective and visionary leadership in the orchestra profession. A healthy and growing talent pool of well-trained, dedicated professionals is critical to maintaining institutional vitality and future growth. And, those who work for America’s orchestras need enhanced skill sets to undertake the complex tasks needed to ensure our collective success.
There are several half-day OLA seminars available that may be of specific interest to League Business Partners.
1:00pm – 1:30pm
Delegate Orientation
Location TBA, Colorado Convention Center
Orient yourselves on the National Performing Arts Convention and the League’s conference before heading off to the opening session.
2:00pm – 3:30pm
OPENING SESSION: THE POWER OF COMMUNITY BUILDING
Wells Fargo Theater, Colorado Convention Center
Celebrate the performing community and share exciting visions of what the future of the performing arts could be! With Mitch Landrieu, lieutenant governor of Louisiana; Bill Rauch, artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper; Erin Trapp, director, Denver Department of Cultural Affairs, and Dana Gioia, chairman, National Endowment for the Arts.
This session lays the foundation for ideas that will be discussed and challenged throughout the Convention. Click here for more program details.
4:00pm – 5:30pm
AMERICASPEAKS CAUCUSES
Location TBA
In preparation for Saturday morning's 21st Century Town Meeting™ three caucus sessions will be held, one each day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The caucuses are designed to cull ideas and create action agenda for consideration at Saturday’s Town Hall Meeting™—and all are aimed at ensuring a strong future for the performing arts in the years to come.
The National Performing Arts Convention has engaged AmericaSpeaks to lead this process of caucuses and town meeting, using the latest methods and technologies. You’ll find a level playing field where every voice is equal, where all ideas are written down and considered. Join the discussions—let your ideas, opinions, and hopes help shape the ideas, opinions, and hopes of others.
5:30 – 7:00pm
7:30pm
Colorado Symphony Orchestra
Boettcher Concert Hall
Jeffrey Kahane, music director
Duain Wolfe, conductor and chorus director
Natasha Paremski, piano
Basil Vendryes, viola
Colorado Symphony Orchestra Chorus
Bernstein, Candide Overture
Bernstein, Chichester Psalms*
John Corigliano, Piano Concerto
Giya Kancheli, Styx
*CSO premiere
Conducted by Maestro Wolfe. Balance of program to be conducted by Maestro Kahane.
Helen M. Thompson and Gold Baton Awards will be presented during the concert.
Following the performance
Hyatt Regency Denver
Hosted by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra
8:00am – 9:30am - League Constituency Meetings
INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION: REINVENTING THE CONCERT EXPERIENCE THROUGH CREATIVE ARTISTIC PARTNERSHIPS – OPEN TO MUSIC PUBLISHERS, ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATORS AND CONDUCTORS ONLY
Panel to include: Jeffrey Kahane (Music Director, Colorado Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra); Zizi Mueller Director of Composers & Repertoire, Boosey and Hawkes; Robert Sher-Machherndl, choreographer and artistic director of Lemon Sponge Cake Contemporary Ballet
-or-
For all other interested exhibitors…
Three special presentation topics have emerged that we would like to make available to you. Each presentation is available for $75 or go to all three for $175! The first of which is below:
League Presentation 1: Turning First-Timers into Life Timers: Understanding and Reducing Churn
Nine senior orchestra marketing professionals and the firm Oliver Wyman joined forces to study churn—that revolving door of ticket buyers that has a significant impact on your bottom line each year. Learn how to better understand this phenomenon, minimize the impact of churn, and develop flexible strategies to retain more of your new customers.
To register for one or all of these sessions, please contact Rebecca Hoerl at 646-822-4010 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
10:00am – 11:30am
AMERICASPEAKS CAUCUSES
Location TBA
In preparation for Saturday morning's 21st Century Town Meeting three caucus sessions will be held, one each day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The caucuses are designed to cull ideas and create an action agenda for consideration on Saturday, one aimed at ensuring a strong future for the performing arts in the years to come. Click here for more details.
Noon – 1:00pm
GENERAL SESSION: FROM GOOD TO GREAT AND THE SOCIAL SECTORS
Best-selling author Jim Collins discusses his groundbreaking theory on what makes the difference between a "good" organization and a "great" one, and how to achieve superior performance in the social sector.
Click here to read selections from Jim Collins’s monograph From Good to Great and the Social Sectors.
2:45pm – 5:45pm
Attend In-Depth Workshops, Breakout Sessions, and Art-Making Workshops or use this time to make appointments with orchestra personnel whom you would like to meet. Locations TBA
A complete list of sessions and breakouts can be found at the My Conference Basic page.
5:45pm – 6:45pm
8:00am – 9:30am
Constituency Block 2
Hyatt Regency Denver Hotel
Many of the delegates will be in their individual constituency meeting groups. Please feel free to make appointments with those orchestra personnel with whom you’d like to meet.
-or-
For all other interested exhibitors…
Three special presentation topics have emerged that we would like to make available to you. Each presentation is available for $75 or go to all three for $175! A repeat of the first of which is below:
League Presentation 1
Turning First-Timers into Life Timers: Understanding and Reducing Churn
Centennial E and Corridor
Nine senior orchestra marketing professionals and the firm Oliver
Wyman joined forces to study churn—that revolving door of ticket buyers
that has a significant impact on your bottom line each year. Learn how
to better understand this phenomenon, minimize the impact of churn, and
develop flexible strategies to retain more of your new customers.
To register for one or all of these sessions, please contact Rebecca Hoerl at 646-822-4010 or
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
9:30am – 4:00pm
10:00am – 11:30am
AMERICASPEAKS CAUCUSES
Locations TBA
In preparation for Saturday morning's 21st Century Town Meeting three caucus sessions will be held, one each day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The caucuses are designed to cull ideas and create an action agenda for consideration on Saturday, one aimed at ensuring a strong future for the performing arts in the years to come. Click here for more details.
11:45am – 1:15pm
1:30pm – 3:00pm
GENERAL SESSION: RADICAL IDEAS FROM BEYOND THE BORDER
Location TBA
Celebrate the innovative work being done around the world. Each speaker at this session has introduced bold strategies that establish the arts at the center of community life. Meet José Antonio Abreu, the visionary founder of El Sistema, the Venezuelan music education miracle; Madhusree Dutta who founded Majlis, a center for rights discourse and multi-cultural initiatives in Mumbai, India; and Germaine Acogny, award-winning dancer and choreographer and the founder of an International Centre for Traditional and Contemporary African Dances in Senegal. Moderated by Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Click here for more information.
3:15pm – 4:30pm
Constituency Block 3
Hyatt Regency Denver Hotel
Many of the delegates will be in their individual constituency meeting groups. Please feel free to make appointments with those orchestra personnel with whom you’d like to meet.
For interested exhibitors…
Three special presentation topics have emerged that we would like to make available to you. Each presentation is available for $75 or go to all three for $175! The second of which is below:
League Presentation 2: Electronic Media Survey
As part of their electronic media consulting work with the League,
Michael Bronson and Joe Kluger (formerly President and CEO of the
Philadelphia Orchestra) will report on electronic media activities in
US orchestras, based on their recent survey of electronic media
activity in Group 1-8 orchestras.
To register for one or all of these sessions, please contact Rebecca Hoerl at 646-822-4010 or
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Finding the Right Artist for the Right Orchestra at the Right Time
A conversation and roundtable discussion to be hosted by Alberto
Gutierrez, Vice President of Artistic Administration, Colorado Symphony
Orchestra (panel tbd) - OPEN ONLY TO ARTIST MANAGERS AND ARTISTIC
ADMINISTRATORS
4:45pm – 6:00pm
Constituency Block 4
Hyatt Regency Denver Hotel
Many of the delegates will be in their individual constituency meeting groups. Please feel free to make appointments with those orchestra personnel with whom you’d like to meet.
-OR-
For interested exhibitors…
Three special presentation topics have emerged that we would like to make available to you. Each presentation is available for $75 or go to all three for $175! The third of which is below:
4:45pm – 6:00pm
League Presentation 3: El Sistema with José Antonio Abreu
You are invited to hear José Antonio Abreu in a special session just for the League. Señor Abreu will discuss his vision and his challenge to us: What can our country and our orchestras learn from the achievements of El Sistema? And what can we do, now and in the future, to bring this miracle to our communities?
To register for one or all of these sessions, please contact Rebecca Hoerl at 646-822-4010 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
6:00pm – 7:00pm
Dinner on your own
7:30pm
OperaColorado
Nixon in China
Ellie Caulkins Opera House
John Adams, Nixon in China
James Robinson, director
Marin Alsop, conductor
Maria Kanyova, Pat Nixon
Robert Orth, Richard Nixon
Marc Heller, Mao Tse-Tung
Tracy Dahl, Madame Mao
Thomas Hammons, Henry Kissinger
Chenye Yuan, Chou Enlai
Melissa Malde, Nancy T'ang
Julie Simson, Second Secretary
Jennifer Dedominici, Third Secretary
ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENT (DELEGATES 35 & UNDER)
10:00pm – 1:00am
ORANGE CAT STUDIO at 2625 Larimer St. in Denver's River North Arts District
What happens when the next generation of performing arts professionals get together after hours? Are you looking to shake things up and network with your open-minded peers? Come hang out, listen to fresh live music at a trendy venue with a backyard garden, and talk informally about our ever-changing field at this laid back, late night session. No ties, no paper, no laptops allowed…
8:00am – 9:30am
Constituency Block 5
Hyatt Regency Denver Hotel
Many of the delegates will be in their individual constituency meeting groups. Please feel free to make appointments with those orchestra personnel with whom you’d like to meet.
10:00am – 12:30pm
A 21ST CENTURY TOWN MEETING WITH AMERICASPEAKS CONCLUSIONS AND CONCLUDING SESSION
Location TBA
The ideas that surface at the caucuses the previous three days will be addressed at Saturday morning's 21st Century Town Meeting. Using the latest technologies, topics will be consolidated, discussed and voted upon by thousands of your peers, each with an individual touch pad. Results will be projected on large video screens in order to identify and hone an agenda to be ratified by this newly unified performing arts community.
At this concluding session, you will help set the agenda for how the arts will be perceived now and in the coming years: by our communities; by national, state, and local governments; by our supporters; and by our audiences. Let your voice be heard, and your vote count, so that we will speak with one voice and together ensure a vital future for the performing arts.