Meghan Martineau Umber will be the seventh president and CEO of the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Umber will be following in the footsteps of Alan Fletcher, who will be transitioning to President Emeritus.
The announcement was made by Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Aspen Music Festival and School Alexandra Munroe Wednesday. Umber comes from the LA Phil, where she currently serves as president, Hollywood Bowl and Chief Programming officer. She is planning to move to Aspen with her family in the summer or fall and begin as president and CEO on Oct. 1.
“The opportunity of leading AMFS is the dream opportunity,” Umber told The Aspen Times. “It is such an amazing jewel box of a school, with this extraordinary festival that they put on. It’s the perfect alignment of both my dream job opportunity and also my dream locale for me and my family. It’s everything for us.”
Umber was selected following what a press release calls “an extensive search process” conducted by a 15 member Search Committee including the music director, trustees, faculty and senior staff members, led by Munroe. Umber is a pianist with a music degree from the Thornton School of Music at University of Southern California, with a background providing strategic leadership at the LA Phil as well as guiding programming and media initiatives across all LA Phil venues.
“I’ve known since I was 15 that what I want to do is do what I do now,” Umber said. “My life revolves around music.”
In her two decades with the LA Phil, she notably led the curation and design of its signature orchestral presentations, festivals and projects at Walt Disney Concert Hall and Hollywood Bowl, in close partnership with Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel.
“She co-created and executed some of the field’s most innovative and influential productions, working especially closely with Dudamel, Creative Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and Disney Hall’s architect Frank Gehry,” the release reads. “A dedicated champion of emerging talent, she also managed the Dudamel Fellowship Conducting Program for seventeen seasons, establishing it as one of the field’s premier training grounds for conductors.”
According to a statement by Munroe in the release, Umber was chosen due to her leadership and commitment to artistic excellence and education, in addition to her ability to connect AMFS’s mission with broader outreach that expands beyond Aspen, Colo., and even the country.
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“Inspired by her deep love of music, she has forged impactful collaborations with musicians and artistic leaders, championed innovative approaches to audience and community engagement and embraced new technologies to expand music’s reach across society,” Munroe said. “In Meghan, we have a new CEO committed to Aspen’s place as a thought leader for the arts as the driving force of a more empathetic, connected and creative future for all.”
Umber’s vision to steward the festival and school is rooted in honoring the legacy of previous years and leaders, including departing CEO Alan Fletcher.
“I’m joining AMFS at a moment of strength for them,” Umber said. “I plan to take extraordinarily good care of that. What’s most important is making these really special, meaningful music experiences. I care about this deeply.”
Umber said that she’s continuously witnessed music offer a shared experience that builds community and dialogue.
“When you have an orchestra, you have 100 people who have sat down and decided to do something together … It’s a dialogue, it’s listening and it’s such a valuable experience, especially for the students,” Umber said. “You learn so much about yourself and the wider world when you’re connecting on something as joyful as music. We’re making community.”
When asked what she’s most excited about for her first year with AMFS, Umber pointed to the summer music festival.
“It’s going to be that moment that I get to walk into the Klein music tent,” she said.
In addition to being the new leader of AMFS, Umber is also mom to two sons — 6 and 4 years old — who are already embracing the Aspen lifestyle after visiting on their spring break. Umber noted that her oldest already considers himself a pro skier, and her youngest “would live at Wagner Park if he was allowed to.”
Her boys will attend Aspen Country Day School and she said she looks forward to being a member of the community not just as a representative of the festival but also as a parent.
“We’ve had this dream to live in a place like Aspen,” Umber said. “We can’t wait to go skiing, to be hiking … (and) to make choices every day to help AMFS be the most extraordinary place on the planet.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aspentimes.com ’
