Executive Leadership Program

The League of American Orchestras is pleased to announce its new Executive Leadership Program – a key element in the League’s commitment to an expanded investment in talent and leadership development. It builds on the League’s history of support for those at the “front-end” of orchestra management careers and builds investment in the health and vitality of our orchestras.

Why is the League making this significant investment?

Research has shown that in the non-profit sector overall, and specifically in the orchestra world, there is:

• high turnover in leadership roles
• an insufficient pool of qualified candidates to fill needed positions
• a need for an enhanced portfolio of skills necessary to maximize effectiveness in our complex environment

The program has been created for those already in executive leadership positions as well as for those who serve as department heads. Strong orchestras require “bench strength” throughout the organization, and the program invests in those, across the range of orchestra positions, with talent, capacity, and potential.

What does the program seek to achieve?

The goals of the Executive Leadership Program are to:

• invest in the growth of individuals and the organizational capacity of orchestras
• help ensure that current and future orchestral managers have the skills necessary for success
• commit resources to those who have already been judged as tomorrow’s leaders at relatively early stages in their leadership careers
• encourage work through the program to be fully integrated into the ongoing activity of individual orchestras
• support a group of outstanding leaders committed to orchestras who can communicate with their colleagues and communities and are at the forefront of new thinking and ideas

What will the program include? 

The program will roll out in three, two-year phases:

Phase 1: Executive Directors in their first few years as institutional leaders
Phase 2: Department heads or senior staffers – particularly in the areas of development and marketing
Phase 3 “Rising Two’s” – those with experience, and proven accomplishment, who seek to become executive directors