ARTS

Thirty-plus year career in arts prepped new Symphony CEO

Tom Szaroleta

Steven Libman brings a wealth of arts experience to his new job as president and CEO of the Jacksonville Symphony. He has managed playhouses, run performing arts centers and ballet companies.

Just don’t ask him to perform.

“Oh, God no,” Libman said in a phone interview earlier this week. “My degree is in performing arts management. While I think I have a strong aesthetic, I am not an artist.”

Libman takes over Feb. 1, coming to Jacksonville from the Atlanta Ballet, where he has been chief advancement officer for five years. He said working with a symphony -- something he hasn’t done during his career -- isn’t all that different from running a ballet company. The Atlanta Ballet, for instance, is affiliated with an orchestra, so it’s not like he hasn’t worked with musicians in the past.

“The foundation of most ballet companies is classical music,” he said.

Libman is a graduate of Rhode Island College, Harvard Business School and the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He’s been president and CEO of an Indiana performing arts center and managing director of the La Jolla Playhouse in California, a Pennsylvania theater, a New York playhouse and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.

He’ll start work Feb. 1 with the Jacksonville Symphony, an organization with more than 100 employees. Courtney Lewis will remain as music director, responsible for programming and performances.

Robert Massey stepped down as president and CEO last January, and David Strickland, chairman of the symphony board, has been filling the role since. “That’s a job I don’t mind being fired from,” Strickland said.

Strickland said about 60 people applied for the position. “The reason Steven really rose to the top and was the unanimous choice is he‘s got a great general management background in performing arts over 30 years.”

Libman, who visited Jacksonville in November and saw the symphony perform, will be in charge of the whole organization and report to the board. He said his main job will be to simply keep things running smoothly.

“My job is sort of multifaceted,” Libman said. “Create an environment where the art can flourish and grow. Push obstacles out of the way so the senior team can accomplish its mission.”

And raise money, of course. Libman is credited with raising more than $150 million over his career. “I love fundraising. Anyone who is the CEO of a nonprofit, you are also the fundraiser-in-chief.”

He said he’ll be seeking out and expanding the symphony’s list of major donors, working to expand the symphony’s brand recognition locally and on a national level and working the “patron loyalty ladder,” convincing single-ticket buyers to become season-ticket buyers, season-ticket buyers to become donors and donors to become major donors.

“We want everyone to have a deep understanding of how important the patron is,” Libman said. “Their thoughts matter and they end up supporting us. That leads to us making sure we have made important relationships between donors and artists.”

Massey announced a five-year, $50 million fundraising campaign in 2018. Massey said he plans a “deep dive” into past fundraising drives to see where things stand.

Strickland said part of Libman’s job will be making the symphony attractive to younger people.

“A lot of our patrons are getting a good bit beyond middle age,’ Strickland said. “We need to make sure we are relevant not just to Baby Boomers but to the next group coming up, Generation X.”

Libman said he expects to do some detailed market research to find out what Jacksonville really wants from its symphony. “It’s far more complicated than just filling out a Survey Monkey.”