SEARCH PROFILE For the Position of Executive Director SEARCH PROFILE For the Position of Executive Director A MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD PRESIDENT Greetings from beautiful Sitka, Alaska! Since 1972 this has been the home of the Sitka Music Festival (SMF). The mission of the SMF is to provide the finest classical music experience in Alaska through performance and education. Each June, world-class musicians come to our beautiful town to share their talents and passion for chamber music with us. Over the years the festival has grown and expanded to reach every corner of Alaska, with performances and seminars throughout the entire year. Presently, SMF is seeking an Executive Director (ED) to help guide the organization into its next exciting chapter. The new ED will work closely with the festival’s Artistic Director, Grammy Award winning cellist Zuill Bailey in implementing our strategic plan, creating new audiences, and building upon the record of excellence that our patrons have come to expect. If you are a person of the highest integrity with a passion for the performing arts, a proven track record of leading fundraising efforts, with a desire to relocate to Alaska, we’d love to hear from you. I encourage you to go online and take a look at our website sitkamusicfestival.org, as well as visitsitka.org, to learn about the wonderful opportunities that Sitka and the Sitka Music Festival have to offer. It’s an exciting time for SMF. June 2021 will be the 50th anniversary of the festival. Preparations for the celebration are already underway. Musicians traveling to Sitka next summer will have the joy of residing in our newly-renovated festival home, The Miner Music Center at Stevenson Hall, which sits on the grounds of the historic Sheldon Jackson College campus. The Board of Directors is committed to the future and continuing the legacy of SMF for the next 50 years and beyond. Mary Hames Sitka Music Festival President, Board of Directors ORGANIZATION • Artistic Director, Grammy Award winning cellist Zuill Bailey • SMF’s 50th anniversary in 2021 SPOTLIGHT • Newly renovated historic center for music Sitka Music Festival Search Profile | 2 SEARCH PROFILE For the Position of Executive Director CANDIDATE PROFILE The Sitka Music Festival is seeking a new Executive Director who will have overall accountability and responsibility for the management of the organization. Reporting to the SMF Board of Directors, this individual will be instrumental in guiding the organization to achieve the goals set forth in its strategic plan; engaging and managing staff, interns and volunteers and serving as the visible representative of SMF to the broader community. The Executive Director will be actively involved in fundraising and will work in collaboration with Artistic Director Zuill Bailey. The Executive Director will be a dynamic and visionary leader with a passion for music and performing arts and who has a minimum of three years previous experience in nonprofit arts management. The successful candidate will have: • Demonstrated success in fundraising • Proven leadership and management experience • Strong oral and written communications skills • Demonstrated ability to build and maintain effective relationships with board members, donors, audience members, other arts organizations • Proven financial acumen • Previous experience with performing arts organizations The successful candidate will be a self-starter and possess a high level of initiative, creativity, and energy. The ability to work independently is a must, as well as the ability to work with various constituents to plan and execute a complex program of work. The successful candidate will be willing to relocate to Alaska. Compensation, including benefits, is competitive and commensurate with qualifications and experience. Sitka Music Festival Search Profile | 3 SEARCH PROFILE For the Position of Executive Director APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS The Search Committee is now accepting nominations, inquiries, and applications for the position of Executive Director. This position will remain open until filled by the Board of Directors. Applicant review will begin upon receipt and will continue until the Executive Director is named. A resume and cover letter should be directed to the Search Committee via email to search@ sitkamusicfestival.org. The Sitka Music Festival is an equal opportunity employer. Sitka Music Festival Search Profile | 4 SEARCH PROFILE For the Position of Executive Director ABOUT THE SITKA MUSIC FESTIVAL The Sitka Summer Music Festival was founded in 1972 by violinist Paul Rosenthal, a then aspiring artist just completing instruction at the University of Southern California with master violinist Jascha Heifetz. Mr. Rosenthal, a native New Yorker, began playing violin at three. He studied with Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School, Ivan Galamian, and Josef Gingold prior to working with Heifetz. Rosenthal found Sitka to be perfect for a chamber music festival when he visited the community on tour with the Arctic Chamber Orchestra. He immediately contacted several colleagues from the legendary Piatigorsky/Heifetz Master Classes and invited them to come to Sitka for the first Sitka Summer Music Festival in June 1972. At that time, a handful of people from around Alaska contributed just enough money to buy the musicians one-way tickets to Sitka, and just enough people attended the concerts to raise the money for their return flights. The SMF will celebrate its 50th summer festival in June, 2021, and has grown dramatically from those first concerts in 1972. In the early ‘80s, annual performances in Anchorage were added in September and February, and the summer festival now fills the entire month of June. In July, 2014, an annual 3-week intensive residency program for pre-professional cellists was added; the organization envisions additional residential programs with the completion of the Stevenson Hall remodel. Tours to rural Alaska communities are also an important part of the Autumn and Winter Classics – guest musicians have visited over 40 Alaska communities, many of which are not connected by roads and have limited access to live music performances. In 2019, the SSMF presented 52 ticketed/free public concerts and 24 education/engagement presentations in 7 Alaska communities, reaching a total audience of 7,500. The annual operating budget is approximately $450,000. In recognition of the year-round programming, the organization recently dropped “Summer” from the name, and is now known as the Sitka Music Festival. In 2011, Rosenthal retired from the Festival, and he deliberately chose Zuill Bailey as his successor to continue the tradition of consistently bringing the highest caliber of classical music to Alaska. Zuill is widely considered to be one of the premiere cellists in the world. Holding Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the Juilliard School, Zuill received a Grammy award in 2017 for his recording of Michael Daugherty’s “Tales of Hemingway.” Sitka Music Festival Search Profile | 5 SEARCH PROFILE For the Position of Executive Director ABOUT THE SMF (cont.) Over 200 professional classical musicians have been presented by the SMF since 1972. Recent programming highlights include the complete Beethoven string quartets with performances by the Attacca Quartet, Ariel Quartet, and Cypress String Quartet; the complete Rachmaninoff piano concertos performed by Natasha Paremski; performances by jazz-classical crossover group The Matt Herskowitz Trio; a tribute to Scott Joplin by pianist Richard Dowling; a performance of Strauss’ Don Quixote arranged for sextet; and spell-binding moments with Russian pianist Yuliya Gorenman through her performances of Bach’s Well Tempered Klavier Book 1 and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. Other notable guest artists have included the Juilliard Quartet, Rachel Barton Pine, and Piers Lane. The Miner Music Center at Stevenson Hall To save on expenses for that first Festival in 1972, Paul Rosenthal formed an early partnership with Sheldon Jackson College which allowed the artists and their families to live on this historic campus, frequently in Stevenson Hall. When Sheldon Jackson College closed in 2007, the Festival was forced to leave its home, and find other accommodations for its artists and staff. The cost of finding lodging for visiting musicians during Sitka’s busy summer visitor season was expensive, and it took away from the organizational mission. The SMF Board and newly appointed Artistic Director Zuill Bailey initiated an effort in 2010 to purchase Stevenson Hall and renovate it to be a year-round center for classical music. As of August, 2020, the SMF has raised $4.22M to purchase and rehabilitate this 110-year-old building. “Miner Music Center” has been added to the name in honor of one of the project’s most generous benefactors. Sitka Music Festival Foundation The Sitka Music Festival Foundation is a non-profit organization created in 1981 by Helen Walker and other Sitka Festival supporters to ensure the long-term financial stability of the Sitka Music Festival. The Foundation is a separate 501(c)3 governed by a board of trustees, with all annual distributions dedicated to supporting the Sitka Music Festival. Sitka Music Festival Search Profile | 6 SEARCH PROFILE For the Position of Executive Director SITKA MUSIC FEST SERVICE AREA Since the ‘80s our guest musicians have performed in over 40 Alaska communities: Sitka Music Festival Search Profile | 7 SEARCH PROFILE For the Position of Executive Director ABOUT THE SITKA AREA Once the Russian and American capital of Alaska, Sitka-By-The-Sea is touted as one of the top US small towns based on quality of life, schools, access to bountiful wilderness and a sense of community through the Arts and Sciences. With approximately 8700 year-round residents and fourteen miles of road, Sitka is located in the Tongass National Forest (largest temperate rainforest in the world) on Baranof Island in SE Alaska. It is the only city in the region to sit on the “Outside” or on the Pacific Ocean, giving it a unique vantage point for Alaskan coastal living.