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  • Schubert Club seeks Artistic and Executive Director

    Aspen Leadership Group is proud to partner with Schubert Club in the search for an Artistic and Executive Director.

    This is an exceptional opportunity for a visionary artistic leader to shape one of the nation’s most respected recital and chamber music institutions at a moment of organizational strength and artistic vitality. The Artistic and Executive Director will lead Schubert Club’s efforts to meet three strategic goals: to reframe our understanding of classical music; to make equity and inclusion central to all we do; and to create meaningful connections for concert audiences, education program participants, and museum visitors. To achieve these goals, the Artistic and Executive Director will lead the development of new audiences, cultivate new and current artistic and community partnerships, build and diversify funding models, and establish new artistic directions while honoring the traditional canon.

    Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Artistic and Executive Director (AED) will set the creative direction for a wide-ranging portfolio of concert series and innovative programs, cultivating artists and projects that deepen Schubert Club’s legacy while engaging new audiences across the Twin Cities. The AED will lead a talented administrative team and champion an organizational culture defined by creativity, collaboration, accessibility, and excellence. The next leader will have significant influence on the 143-year-old organization’s long-term sustainability by guiding strategic planning, curating powerful musical experiences, stewarding financial health, and driving philanthropic growth.

    The AED serves as a member of the Board of Directors of The Arts Partnership alongside executive and board leadership from the Ordway, Minnesota Opera, and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. This unique strategic alliance (a separate 501c3 organization) ensures the equitable sharing and effective care of Ordway Center, the performing home of the four Arts Partnership members and a vital Twin Cities cultural asset that connects hundreds of thousands of community members and artists annually. The AED will collaborate as a member of The Arts Partnership in order to maintain a healthy and harmonious arts ecosystem in St. Paul.

    Founded in 1882 and rooted deeply in the cultural fabric of St. Paul, Schubert Club is one of the oldest arts organizations in the United States and among the nation’s most respected classical music institutions. Its mission—to create inspiring musical experiences that contribute to the cultural vibrancy of the Twin Cities community—inspires a broad portfolio of programs that bring world-class artistry and meaningful musical experiences to audiences of all ages across the Twin Cities.

    Schubert Club’s artistic offerings span a vibrant array of concert series that reach diverse audiences. The International Artist Series remains a flagship recital series of national standing. The beloved Music in the Park Series, an independent organization until its merger with Schubert Club in 2010, presents distinguished chamber ensembles in an intimate neighborhood setting. Launched in 2014, Schubert Club Mix reimagines the recital experience through nontraditional venues, repertoire, and artistic collaborations. Accordo, a string collective of Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra principal players, performs throughout the year in Minneapolis, while free weekly Courtroom Concerts highlight Minnesota-based performers and composers at Landmark Center—Schubert Club’s headquarters in downtown St. Paul—from October through April.

    As a founding member of The Arts Partnership, Schubert Club collaborates with leaders of the Ordway, Minnesota Opera, and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra to support a vibrant performing arts ecosystem in downtown St. Paul, strengthening shared artistic goals, community engagement, and cultural vitality. Schubert Club is governed by a 33-member Board of Directors; the FY26 operating budget is $3.1M. The Artistic and Executive Director will lead a trusted and talented team of 13 full-time staff.

    A bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education and experience and at least five years of demonstrable success in concert programming and organizational management, preferably as an Artistic and/or Executive Director is required for this position. Expertise in classical music repertoire and the classical music business is required; experience as a musician is preferred. Schubert Club will consider candidates with a broad range of backgrounds. If you are excited about this role and feel that you can contribute to Schubert Club, but your experience does not exactly align with every qualification listed above, we encourage you to apply. All applications must be accompanied by a cover letter and résumé. Cover letters should be responsive to the mission of Schubert Club and the responsibilities and qualifications specified in the position prospectus.

    The salary range for this position is $200,000 to $240,000. Schubert Club offers a comprehensive package of benefits, including health, dental, and vision insurance, retirement plan with 10% employer match for eligible employees, life and long-term disability insurance, parking at Landmark Center, and generous vacation days, paid time off, and paid holidays.

    If you require reasonable accommodation in completing this application, interviewing, or participating in the selection process, please contact Christopher Wingert at chriswingert@aspenleadershipgroup.com.

    To apply for this position, visit: https://apptrkr.com/6766524.

  • The Takács Quartet To Lose Its Last Founding Member

    Cellist András Fejér has been with the famed string quartet since its founding exactly 50 years ago. As of next September, Fejér will retire; replacing him will be Romanian-born cellist Mihai Marica. – Gramophone

  • Minnesota Dance “Titan” Dies At 63

    Toni Pierce-Sands, a featured soloist in some of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s most iconic suites and a co-founder of celebrated Twin Cities company TU Dance, died Tuesday in Minneapolis. She was 63 and had been battling cancer. – The Star-Tribune

  • How Did The Ancient Assyrian Library Of King Ashurbanipal Survive For 2,600 Years?

    Oddly enough, the collection —well, the cuneiform clay tablets, not the papyrus — has come down to us today precisely because the Babylonians and Medes conquered and down Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, in 612 BC. – Artnet

  • Dallas City Council Considers Leaving Its IM Pei-Designed City Hall

    The Dallas city government has voted to explore relocating and selling the brutalist city hall designed by architect IM Pei, placing the building under increased threat of demolition. – Dezeen

  • The Art Developments That Defined 2025

    All in all, an exhausting year. But—if you’ll permit me—a bit of hope? For every gallery that shut down or closed a location, another seemed to open. And, as art dealers reminded me all year, when the world gets dark, artists rise to the challenge, leading the way forward. – ARTnews

  • AI May Help To Preserve And Grow Endangered Arapaho Language

    I first visited the Northern Arapaho people on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming in 1999. At that time, there were hundreds of speakers of the Arapaho language. Today, there are less than 100, and all are over the age of 70. – The Conversation

  • Luigi Pirandello Was Once Considered One Of Europe’s Great Writers. Why Was He Forgotten?

    His plays were produced and his books were read all over the Western world, and he won the Nobel for literature in 1943. How is it he’s disappeared from our bookshelves and stages? (His enthusiastic fascism certainly didn’t help.) There are still worthwhile, albeit depressing, lessons in his work. – The Nation (MSN)

  • Race To Buy Warner Bros. May Come Down To Relationship

    Netflix showing strong interest in WBD’s assets, including making a mostly cash offer to acquire them, coincided with reports that the White House had antitrust concerns, while Comcast, which also submitted a bid, still has to deal with the challenge that President Donald Trump loathes CEO Brian Roberts. – The Wrap (MSN)

  • By The Numbers: How Arts Organizations Have Fared In The Past Six Years

    Performing arts organizations experienced sharper drops in revenue and staffing in 2024 than museums or community organizations. – SMU Cultural Data

  • When Our Machines Become Sentient, Will We Notice?

    If an AI system were sentient, then the alignment paradigm, whereby AI activities are circumscribed entirely by human goals, becomes untenable. It would be ethically impermissible to subject the interests of a sentient AI system to human-defined goals. – 3 Quarks Daily

  • Choreographer Tere O’Connor Explains His Famously Baffling Dances

    “As with other artistic attempts to track the mind more accurately — like the stream-of-consciousness of Virginia Woolf and James Joyce — O’Connor’s coexistence-of-everything choreography can appear off-putting and abstruse. But O’Connor isn’t trying to be difficult, he said.” – The New York Times

  • How Civilizations Collapse

    Today the conditions for apocalypticism—gaping inequality, pandemics, rapid technological development—are amply present. So perhaps it isn’t surprising that, over the past several years, a number of scholars and political figures have warned of a coming collapse, by which they tend to mean the destruction of the basic elements of society. – The Atlantic (MSN)

  • Broadway Veteran Makes Leading Lady Debut At 96

    June Squibb made her Broadway debut in the Ethel Merman-led production of “Gypsy” as a replacement for one of the strippers. What would she have said if someone had told her back then that she’d eventually get a starring role on Broadway, but that it wouldn’t happen for another 65 years? – Los Angeles Times

  • Supreme Court Appeared To Be Leaning Toward Internet Companies In Music Piracy Case

    During nearly two hours of argument, the court appeared to be leaning toward the internet companies – perhaps on narrow grounds. – CNN

  • Why Trump Won’t Go After “South Park”, No Matter How Ferociously It Lampoons Him

    None of the late-night hosts Trump repeatedly attacks have said anything nearly as outrageous as what the animated series does, depicting the President having an affair with Satan and siring the Antichrist. Why does Trump never lambaste South Park? Because it has two things he respects more than anything else. – The Hollywood Reporter

  • This Major New Arts Center Is Almost Finished, On Time And On Budget. Even So, It May Not Open.

    Kanal, on the edge of central Brussels, will feature a large museum, multiple performance venues, and an architecture center. It’s 95% complete and scheduled to open this time next year. Yet, thanks to widely expected budget cuts and a particularly Belgian kind of political dysfunction, Kanal’s prospects are in doubt. – The Guardian

  • Baby Jesus Is Stolen Amid Controversy Over Creche At Brussels’ Main Christmas Market

    The Nativity scene by artist Victoria-Maria Geyer (herself a practicing Catholic) is the first new one on the Grand-Place in 25 years, and she made the human figures without faces so that people of any background could identify with them. Alas, that’s not how the assemblage was received. – Euronews

  • Starchitect David Adjaye Makes First Public Comments Addressing Sexual Harassment Allegations

    While he called the reporting of the allegations “unfair,” Adjaye didn’t address directly the substance of the charges (which he denied when the first reports came out). Rather, he spoke about the effect the accusations had on him and what he sees as the media’s motives in reporting the story. – Dezeen

  • Royal Shakespeare Co. To Cut 11% Of Staff

    Company management expects to reduce its base expenses by £2.8 million ($3.7 million) annually with layoffs as well as pay cuts for some remaining staffers. – The Stage (UK)

  • Iran Sentences Filmmaker Jafar Panahi To Prison While He’s Abroad Accepting Awards

    As he was in New York receiving three Gotham Awards for his Cannes-winning It Was Just an Accident, a Tehran court sentenced Panahi to a year in prison and a two-year travel ban for “propaganda activities against the system.” – AP

  • Britain’s National Gallery Is Making A Billion-Dollar Move Into Modern And Contemporary Art

    In London, until now, post-1900 Western art was Tate territory, but the National has launched “Project Domani,” a £750 million ($998 million) plan to build a new wing for the gallery and set up an endowment to acquire and care for post-1900 art. – The Times (UK)

  • Russia Prepares To Declare Pussy Riot An “Extremist” Organization

    “Russia’s prosecutor general opened a case against the feminist art group on Friday, November 28. The ‘extremist’ label, commonly deployed by the government as justification for stifling political opposition, would officially ban the collective’s activities in Russia.” – Hyperallergic

  • Canadians Are Buying Canadian. How About Music Too?

    Canada has been neglecting our (excellent and varied) music scene for the past decade. A post-pandemic evaluation of the government’s Canada Music Fund revealed that revenues are down: album sales fell by nearly 74 percent between 2015 and 2021. – The Walrus

  • DOGE Has Evolved from Chainsaw to Ticks
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  • A New Contemporary Art Prize Is The UK’s Largest — £200,000

    “The Serpentine x FLAG Art Foundation Prize, as it will be called, will be awarded every other year to an international artist who will receive £200,000 ($265,000), as well as an exhibition and programming at both institutions and an accompanying catalog.” – ARTnews

  • Netflix: Viewership Of Southeast Asian Content Up 50 Percent In 2025

    More than 100 Southeast Asian titles have appeared in Netflix’s Global Top 10. Over 40 of those titles charted in 2025 alone. Titles from the region also ranked in the top 10 lists of over 80 countries in 2025. – Deadline

  • Cliches Have Gotten A Bad Rap

    While I agree that leaning on a cliché might be a prosaic get-out-of-jail-free card, I do think they get a bad rap. The general criticism is that clichés are lazy, which I can understand. Yet sometimes I feel like this feedback itself is lazy or one-dimensional. – Sydney Review of Books

  • Why Close Reading Is Having A Moment

    I learned about close reading when I asked them to take their own thinking seriously—to take themselves seriously. Doing so, I found, forced me to take my job more seriously. – Boston Review

  • Royal Danish Ballet Returns To The Classic Choreographer Who Made The Company Great

    August Bournonville directed the company in the mid-19th century, and his works and style became thoroughly identified with the institution. Yet for some years the RDB turned away from Bournonville toward contemporary ballet; new artistic director Amy Watson is bringing his works and style back to the company’s heart. – The New York Times

  • How A “Broken” Reader Learned To Loving Reading Again

    It took weeks for me to realize that I was a broken reader. I assumed I’d just had a streak of bad luck in the Dept. of Picking. I started taking fewer chances. I bought only books that looked like books I would buy. This backfired in a kind of horror-movie sequence. – The New York Times

  • A Race To Save Our Recorded Music History

    A huge portion of the world’s recorded musical heritage is stored on magnetic tape, used regularly from the 1940s into the digital age to capture musicians’ sounds in the studio. But as analog tape ages, it grows more fragile and vulnerable. – The New York Times

  • Hamnet — The Shakespeare For Our Times?

    Most of all, I was struck by how the film chose to portray William Shakespeare, the greatest poet in the English language, as a kind of Marlon Brando in Elizabethan drag. – The New York Times

  • Suddenly The Anti-Gay Slur “F******” Is All Over New York Theater

    Erik Piepenburg: “This year at least six theater productions have used “f*****” in their titles. … Why is a slur that a stranger hurled at me now waving hello from my playbill?” On the other hand, famously gay Black playwright Jeremy O. Harris told Piepenburg to stop pearl-clutching. – The New York Times

  • Why We Need Systemic Support For Arts And Humanities

    Arts and humanities scholarship is not an ornament, it is the record of what human minds have made, imagined and endured. To let those worlds fall quiet is to diminish what it means to be human. – Arts Professional