Vice President of Artistic Planning

Department:

Artistic

Reports To:

President and CEO

Classification: Exempt

Status: Regular Full-time

Direct Reports: 2

Indirect Reports: 3

Salary Range: $185000 to $200000 annually

Position Summary

Working in conjunction with the Music Director and President and CEO the Vice President of Artistic Planning will help inform and shape the Minnesota Orchestras expansive artistic and strategic vision for the future. This role will be involved in all elements of the artistic profile of the Orchestra from fostering relationships with guest artists and conductors to commissioning touring and media planning. This role will work closely with orchestra musicians and will be additive to the collaborative institutional culture of the Minnesota Orchestra.

About the Minnesota Orchestra:

The Minnesota Orchestra is a Grammy Award-winning orchestra known for acclaimed performances in Minnesota and around the world a storied history of recordings and radio broadcasts innovative educational engagement programs and a commitment to new orchestral music. Founded by Emil Oberhoffer in 1903 as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra the organization was the eighth major orchestra established in the United 1911 it began a series of childrens concerts under the sponsorship of the Young Peoples Symphony Concert Association (YPSCA) which continues to this day. Early in the 1920s the orchestra was one of the first to be heard on recordings and on the radio playing a nationally broadcast concert with guest conductor Bruno Walter in 1923. In 1968 the orchestra changed its name to the Minnesota Orchestra (or Minnesota Orchestral Association).

Today the Orchestra performs a wide variety of music including nearly 175 concerts in a typical year primarily at Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis the organizations home since 1974. The Orchestra is led by Music Director Thomas Søndergård and has historically toured regularly throughout Minnesota nationally and abroad. The Minnesota Orchestra has an annual budget of $42.6M and ended FY2024 with net assets of $185.5M. The organization employs over 150 FT employees and over 100 PT staff and is supported and governed by an 80 member Board of 2024-guests attended in-person concerts; with audio streaming digital concerts TV and radio broadcasts included that number reached more than 2.5 million people.

Minnesota Orchestra Values:

We believe every employee is essential to the success of the organization and critical to accomplishing our mission to enrich inspire and serve our community.
Our working relationships are based on respect for each other as individuals confidence in one another and a genuine desire to actively listen and collaborate with each other.
We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organization that honors and reflects the community we serve welcomes and instills diversity across our organization and nurtures an equitable and inclusive culture.

Essential Functionsand Day-to-Day Work

• Develop and manage relationships with conductors solo artists and composers as well as their agents managers and publishers. The successful candidate will have established relationships with leading international artists as well as the ability to recognize and cultivate young and emerging talents.
• Prepare and analyze financial information with success in managing expenditures and negotiating performance fees and contracts.
• Work with both unionized and non-unionized staff.
• Develop and implement programmatic initiatives and educational opportunities for a wide range of audience members.
• Engage with major donors and collaborate with the development team to optimize special artistic funding opportunities.
• Collaborate across the organization (e.g. Artistic Advisory Committee Minnesota Orchestra Members Committee Education Community Engagement Orchestra and Production Marketing Orchestra Personnel Development and Finance) to deliver artistically impactful and well curated seasons.

Work Environment and Physical and Mental Demands

The Minnesota Orchestra is primarily a place-based organization offering hybrid schedules that require some in-person on-site work. Permission is required for applicants and current employees seeking to reside outside of the Twin Cities metropolitan area or more than 60 miles from Orchestra Hall. While working on site at Orchestra Hall or the administrative offices work is performed in an open office environment with moderate noise levels in a cubical desk configuration and in a performing art building on stage in a lobby or other location within the facility and occasionally in an outdoor environment for outdoor concerts or other activities. While performing the duties of this position incumbents may be required to do all or some of the following with or without accommodation:

Sit or stand at a desk counter or other work surface

Talk and/or hear spoken words music or other sounds

Use hands or fingers to handle or touch objects around them

Review documents monitors or displays with potentially small print

Operate a computer phone and other common office tools or controls

Mentally focus on tasks and apply sound reasoning and judgement

Work in or attend meetings or other events in any of the Orchestra locations or other sites as necessary

Lift/move objects (such as files packages props or office equipment) or ensure objects are lifted/moved that may weigh up to 15 lbs.

The typical workdays and hours for the organization are Monday Friday 8:00 am 5:00 pm with the possibility of extended evening weekend or holiday this exempt position work is expected to be delivered within established deadlines and quality standards without regard to the typical working days or hours as noted above with some autonomy to determine attendance at a performance or other events.

Perks & Benefits

Our benefit programs are more than just insurance plans. To us they demonstrate a commitment to our employees and their families that we care about who they are and their health and wellbeing.

Health Benefits Offerings

Generous employer contributions to medical plans

Dental and vision plans

Health Savings Account (HSA) employer funding each pay period

Flexible Spending Account (FSA)

Employee Assistance Program

Life and AD&D

Short- and Long-Term Disability

Time Off Benefits

Generous PTO accrual

Generous sick leave accrual

Volunteering Time Off

13 organizational holidays

Financial

401(k) Plan with two ways to earn organizational contributions

Perks

MetroPass

Parking Garage Discounts

Complimentary and Discounted Tickets

Qualifications Skills and Abilities

• Bachelors Degree in Music Performance Music Theory Music Education or related field or the equivalent amount of training and hands-on experience sufficient to perform the essential functions of the position
• 10 years of senior leadership experience which includes a minimum of 5 years in a similar VP/Director role
• Extensive knowledge of classical and other genres of music
• Demonstrated aptitude for analyzing community engagement programmatic initiative and other artistic data collection
• Demonstrated ability to manage confidential and sensitive information possess a high degree of personal integrity and sound judgment
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines with excellent attention to detail
• Demonstrated strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to effectively present ideas and deliverables to internal stakeholders external suppliers vendors or other entities
• Demonstrated enthusiasm for advancing diversity equity and inclusion principles and an active interest in incorporating such practices across the organization.
• Availability to participate in donor engagement events including concerts receptions dinners lunches and fundraising events
• Willingness to work in a very fast-paced environment
• Familiarity with a shared governance model or openness to learning this form of participation
• Flexibility and courage in testing new ideas and taking risks
• Comfort with and adaptability to new technologies
• A tolerance for ambiguity

Technology/Equipment

Intermediate to advanced knowledge of artistic planning software such as Arts Vision or other related software

Intermediate to advanced knowledge of MS Office suite especially Excel Word Outlook PowerPoint Microsoft Teams

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

The Minnesota Orchestral Association is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable discrimination laws. We recruit hire train and promote all persons without regard to race color sex religion national origin sexual orientation age disability creed status with regard to public assistance or any other non-job related characteristic.