Anne Parsons Leadership Program Names Participants

Six female and non-binary orchestral professionals will receive mentoring and training for executive positions

The League of American Orchestras has recently announced the six female and non-binary orchestral professionals who will participate in the inaugural year of its Anne Parsons Leadership Program. The program provides career mentoring, with the eventual aim of improving gender equity in the executive positions of our orchestras.

The six participants were selected from a pool of eighty candidates. They are as follows:

• Catherine Beeson, Assistant Principal Viola, Colorado Symphony
• Kathryn Ginsburg, General Manager, Detroit Symphony Orchestra
• Emma Kail, Executive Director, Grand Teton Music Festival
• Kate Kammeyer, Executive Director, Berkeley Symphony
• Felecia Tchen Kanney, Vice President of Communications, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
• Pamela Calero Wardell, Executive Director, Ocala Symphony Orchestra

Each participant will have two mentors, with whom they will meet several times during the year. There is also a weekend training conference taking place in June, and multiple training sessions on Zoom.

The program is named for the trailblazing orchestra executive Anne Parsons, who was president of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for seventeen years.

"Developing the next generation of change leaders is an incredibly important focus of the League’s ongoing work," said Simon Woods, the president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras.

"The mentoring and guidance these six talented professionals will receive, and the personal networks they will build as a result of this program, will be critical to their future success. I’m so grateful to the four founding mentors for continuing Anne Parsons’ work. She would have been proud to know her legacy continues."