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- Carmel Bach Festival Director of Development
Title: Director of Development
Classification: Full-time, exempt, year-round
Reports to: Executive Director
Supervises: Seasonal StaffAbout the Carmel Bach Festival
The Carmel Bach Festival (CBF) began in 1935 as a four-day series of concerts at the Sunset School Auditorium and the Carmel Mission Basilica. Over the years, it has grown to a two-week celebration of concerts, recitals, master classes, lectures, and open rehearsals in July. The Festival’s mission is to celebrate the works, inspiration and ongoing influence of Johann Sebastian Bach worldwide by immersing audiences in a festival experience integrating music, education and ideas. Under the leadership of Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Grete Pedersen the organization offers innovative artistic programming.
The 89th season takes place July 11–25, 2026.
Position Summary
The Carmel Bach Festival (CBF) seeks a dynamic and results-oriented Director of Development. This pivotal role will be responsible for developing and executing effective fundraising strategies across all aspects of the festival. This includes overseeing campaigns, stewardship, cultivation, and solicitation with donors across the philanthropic spectrum. This is a leadership position that will collaborate regularly with all department leaders to help shape the future of the festival.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
• Collaborate with the Executive Director and Development Committee to retain donors, increase giving, and solicit new gifts
• Plan fundraising events such as the annual gala, receptions, and stewardship events
• Maintain the donor database, process gifts, and acknowledgements
• Develop and maintain the department budget
• Build relationships in the communityQualification Requirements
• Bachelor’s degree preferred.
• Minimum of five years of experience in fundraising, with a strong preference for experience in the performing arts industry.
• Proven track record of meeting annual fundraising goals in a non-profit setting.
• Experience recruiting supervising full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees.
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Proficiency in donor data management.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to interpret data.
• Attention to detail and excellent writing skills.Annual salary range: $94,000 – $100,000, plus benefits
Must be regionally based. Partial remote work is available.
- Good Morning
Today’s AJ highlights: The lead story remains the Kennedy Center. Following the news of Trump’s two-year closure of the Kennedy Center, reports now suggest the shutdown may be as much about a total lack of 2026-2027 programming as it is about renovations (CNN). While Donald Trump has promised to “use the steel” of the existing structure, critics warn that the building’s basic function, legacy, and audience are at grave risk of being erased (Washington Post (MSN)). This administrative mess apparently left several board members in the dark while neglecting the fate of the National Symphony and touring Broadway shows (Washington Post (MSN)).
For the first time since 1994, Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel will undergo a three-month restoration to remove a “whitish haze” of microparticles deposited by 6 million annual visitors (AP). In France, however, the past may be removed entirely; a proposed repatriation law has sparked warnings that French museums could “empty out” as artifacts are returned to former African colonies to repair diplomatic relations (The Times).
The battle for creative authenticity has reached a new threshold of data. While a new study finds that AI can beat the “average” human on creativity tests, it still fails to outperform the top 25% of human thinkers (Singularity Hub). This data-driven pragmatism is echoed by Gen Z, whose relationship with AI is reportedly more utilitarian than personal (Harvard Business Review). At the Grammys, female winners saw a dramatic drop to 23%, the lowest level since 2022 (The Conversation).
Finally, we mark the passing of Woodie King Jr., the titan who founded the New Federal Theatre and launched the careers of legends like Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman (AP).
All of our stories below.
- Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling To Get A Three-Month Cleaning
The first major restoration since 1994 of The Last Judgment (as the fresco is titled) a film of microparticle buildup — a “widespread whitish haze, produced by the deposition of microparticles of foreign substances carried by air movements” — caused by the over 6 million people who visit the chapel each year. – AP
- The Challenge For Disney’s New CEO: Become The Face Of Disney
Since Walt Disney first created the company, the CEO has been a highly visible presence not only in Hollywood and on Wall Street, but in pop culture. – Fast Company
- How GenZ Is Using AI
Our survey reveals that Gen Z’s relationship with AI is more pragmatic than personal. While headlines suggest young people treat chatbots as confidants and companions, the data tell a different story. – Harvard Business Review
- Explaining That Weird Delivery Poets Use When They’re Reading Their Work Aloud
“Good poets exploit that musicality the same way good rappers do, favoring one word over another for the way it interacts with the words around it. But poets, unlike rappers, are not generally performers, and it shows when they recite their work for an audience.” – The New York Times
- Big Drop In Female Winners At This Year’s Grammys
Our analysis reveals that women and female bands sustained a dramatic fall in winners compared to last year. They received less than a quarter of all Grammys (23%), a 14 percentage point drop from last year’s high of 37% and the lowest level since 2022. – The Conversation
- The Most Influential Book Critic Is Found On TikTok
You will not find any submissions of his languishing in the LRB slush pile. Instead he posts on BookTok and BookTube, the social media planes concerned with reading, where millions of viewers watch videos about books. – New Statesman
- New Artistic Director For Baltimore’s Everyman Theatre
Brandon Weinbrenner, currently the associate artistic director at the Alley Theatre in Houston, will succeed Vincent Lancisi, who is stepping down at the end of the season from the troupe that he founded 35 years ago. – The Baltimore Sun (MSN)
- Study: For Now, Humans Beat AI In High-Level Creativity. Next Week?
The AI’s “all outperformed the average human. However, when they measured the average performance of the top 50 percent of human participants, it exceeded all tested models. The gap widened further when they took the average of the top 25 percent and top 10 percent of humans.” – Singularity Hub
- The Political Left Case For Teaching The Great Books
The notion that students should mainly be acquiring “skills” or “competencies,” so prevalent in high-level discussions of education policy and in ranking school systems, rings hollow to anyone who has ever cared enough to become a teacher. – The Point
- Judge Rules For Arbitration In Philadelphia Museum Director Firing
A judge has ruled that the messy conflict between the Philadelphia Art Museum and its former director and CEO, Sasha Suda, who was dismissed in November, will go to arbitration, not to a jury trial, as Suda had requested in a civil suit. – ARTnews
- Glasgow’s Centre For Contemporary Arts Goes Bankrupt And Shuts Down
“The venue and office space, on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street, fell into the hands of liquidators on Friday, with the building immediately shut down and all staff laid off. It had temporarily closed its doors in September as it worked to secure its long-term future – however, had planned to reopen in March.” – The Scotsman
- Kennicott: What’s At Stake At The Kennedy Center
It certainly seems possible that the 1971 building, designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone, could be partially or completely erased. And with it, the center’s basic function, as a venue for the arts, along with its history, its distinguished legacy and its last remaining audience. – Washington Post (MSN)
- French Museums Would “Empty Out” Under Proposed Repatriation Law
Restituting artefacts will be crucial to improve France’s relations with its former African colonies, many of which have broken off military co-operation with Paris. “This is a really important issue for young Africans and for my generation.” – The Times
- Essa-Pekka Salonen Gets A New Job
The Boston Symphony Orchestra announced Monday, Feb. 2, that the Finnish conductor and composer will serve as director of the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music in 2026, curating five programs July 23-27. – San Francisco Chronicle
- Disney Reveals Bob Iger’s Successor As CEO: Theme Parks Chief Josh D’Amaro
“The appointment marks the second time in six years that Disney has selected a successor to Iger — his previous pick in parks boss Bob Chapek devolved into a public spectacle of corporate governance that saw Iger reclaim the CEO spot and restart the clock on retirement.” – CNBC
- New Federal Theatre Founder Woodie King Jr. Is Dead At 88
King launched the Off-Broadway company in 1970 to produce work by Black playwrights and give employment to Black theatermakers. Playwrights Ntozake Shange, Charles Fuller, and David Henry Hwang launched their careers there; NFT gave early boosts to performers Denzel Washington, Phylicia Rashad, Debbie Allen, Morgan Freeman, Chadwick Boseman, and Samuel L. Jackson. – AP
- Trump and the Arts — Take 2: Jimmy Kimmel on the Kennedy Center Shutdown
As a sequel to my NPR show on Donald Trump’s incursions at the Kennedy Center, the NEH, and the NEA, here’s something Jimmy Kimmel said on TV the other night:
Trump says he’s closing the Kennedy center for roughly two years, so it can be rebuilt into the finest performing
- Was Alexei Ratmansky’s New Ballet Inspired By Trump? Not Exactly.
The choreographer had the idea for The Naked King, based on the old fable “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and premiering this week at New York City Ballet, after watching one of last year’s “No Kings” protests. – The New York Times
- The Kennedy Center Closure Announcement Is An Even Bigger Mess Than You Thought
Many people who should have been apprised of Trump’s plans before they were announced were not, including several Kennedy Center board members. And evidently little thought was given to either the National Symphony or touring Broadway shows booked for this summer. – The Washington Post (MSN)
- The Real Reason Trump Is Closing Kennedy Center Next Season? No Programming, Says Source
“The Kennedy Center does not have a 2026-2027 season,” a source told CNN Inside Politics host Dana Bash. “There would not have been any programming to announce.” (video) – CNN
- Trump Promises He Won’t Tear Down The Kennedy Center — But …
… he said that about the East Wing of the White House, too. And what Trump did say sounds worrisome: “I’ll be using the steel. So we’re using the structure.” – AP
- Here Are The 2026 Winners of Grammy Awards For Classical Music
The biggest winner was composer Gabriela Ortiz, who took three prizes — Best Choral Performance, Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Classical Compendium — for works performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel. – Gramophone
- Hello, Carol.Are nonprofit arts leaders simply more susceptible to groupthink, even to their own detriment?
- Surprise! “Melania” Did Great Box Office Its Opening Weekend
It was expected to generate in the region of $5m (£3.7m) in its first weekend, but its actual takings are “a huge start for a documentary”, Variety said, and “no one saw that coming”, according to the Hollywood Reporter. – BBC
- So You Can Make An Audience Cry. Not Necessarily Good.
Is the direct representation of emotion to provoke emotion in fact a turn-off? – The Conversation
- People Fear That Reading Is Dying. Don’t Believe It
All serious intellectual work happens on the page, and we shouldn’t pretend otherwise. If you want to contribute to the world of ideas, if you want to entertain and manipulate complex thoughts, you have to read and write. – Persuasion
- Opera As “A State Of Emergency”
Created to commemorate the company’s 50th anniversary, Complications in Sue opens Wednesday with 10 composers commissioned to write eight-minute scenes. These collectively encompass the century-long life of a mythical everywoman named Sue. – Philadelphia Inquirer
- South African Artist Sues Her Government For Blocking Her Venice Biennale Artwork
A South African artist is suing the arts minister after he blocked her from representing the country at the Venice Biennale, having called her work addressing Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza “highly divisive”. – The Guardian
- Struggling San Antonio Philharmonic Cancels February Concerts
The news comes as the Philharmonic is embroiled in a legal dispute with the Scottish Rite over payments related to renovations of the historic building. – Texas Public Radio
- Trump Wants To Build A 250-Foot Triumphal Arch In Washington
Trump has grown attached to the idea of a 250-foot-tall structure overlooking the Potomac River, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe his comments, a scale that has alarmed some architectural experts who initially supported the idea of an arch but expected a far smaller one. – Washington Post
- I Write For A Living. I Tested My Students. They Preferred The AI Writing To My Own (That Hurt!)
I gave the students time to read both pieces, and then asked for their comments. To my surprise, the majority told me the AI version was better. They said it was better argued, more clearly structured, more ambitious in scope, and, this was the real kick in the guts, a few even told me it was more personal than my own. – The Independent
- How The Metropolitan Opera Got To Be In Such Dire Straits
How did America’s greatest operatic institution get to the point of needing Saudi money to cover its $330 million annual operating budget? Ticket sales account for less than a third of that. – New York Post
- The Latest Art Basel Opens — In Qatar
It was the unlikely, but ultimately successful, host of the 2022 soccer World Cup. Its Grand Prix has become a Formula One fixture. And this week it will premiere a new event from Art Basel, the world’s biggest, most prestigious art fair franchise. – The New York Times
