Published July 28, 2023

Reno Phil CEO Search

by Scott Faulkner

Perhaps the only thing I’m certain of is that life doesn’t work out the way you think it will. Unfortunately for our local music community, this truth reared its head recently when Reno Phil President & CEO Ignacio Barrón Viela got an offer he couldn’t refuse, and after less than a year in the position has decided to move on. For those that read my entry last October, they will recall that in hiring Ignacio, Reno gained a brilliant rising star in the orchestra field. When the Tampa/St. Petersburg based Florida Orchestra recruited him to be their next CEO, it was clear that the rest of the world knew just how special Ignacio and his talents are. After much consideration, many sleepless nights, and a lot of soul-searching, Ignacio accepted the position with this orchestra. A job like this (The Florida Orchestra’s operating budget is something like three to four times larger than the Reno Phil’s) was going to happen for him at some point, it’s just Reno’s loss that it happened so quickly. But happened it has, and the Reno Phil board of directors now faces the task of finding both his interim and permanent replacement.

As a musician in the orchestra, I was recently asked to submit thoughts about what we should be looking for in a new CEO. This blog entry offers a few thoughts about characteristics and talents that I believe are crucial for the Reno Phil’s next CEO to have.

Leadership: Last year I blogged some my thoughts on leadership, and you can read them here. The orchestra CEO job is mostly (perhaps exclusively) about relationships, and building a healthy and fertile place for relationships to thrive is at the heart of leadership.

Board Connection: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… nothing as important to a non-profit organization than its board of directors. Orchestras are unique in that the CEO’s relationship to the board flows in two directions. The board hires and fires this person, but the CEO knows much more about the business than his or her “boss” does and, thanks to term limits, that “30-headed boss” is constantly changing. That the members of the board are also some of the organization’s biggest donors can make the wicket even stickier. Mutual respect is crucial so that the CEO gets the direction and support they need. But it is also fundamental that the board give the CEO the autonomy they need to lead their staff and do their best work executing the mission. The board needs to hire someone who they trust and are comfortable learning from. Things can go south in a hurry when this two-way flow is not healthy. 

Knowledge and love of Music: While it is important that a new executive comes in with solid business skills and corporate best practices, more than once orchestra boards have hired someone with no knowledge of, or passion for, music. Often these people from outside the field are hired because they will “run it like a business.” To be sure we are a business, but we are not a typical business, and if a new CEO comes in with an attitude that they are fundamentally creating widgets, instead of fundamentally creating beauty and impacting lives through music, it often doesn’t go well. 

Community focus and inclusion: We are the RENO Philharmonic. Reno and our surrounding area must be important to the person that is hired. They don’t necessarily need to be from Reno, and quite likely won’t be. But they need to connect with and like our people and place enough to authentically care about us. We’ve all experienced the annoying, and sometimes destructive, people who come to town and tell us all about how much better [insert big, important city name here] was. Drawing on past experience is fine. Judging and belittling the place someone chose to work is not. Building on this, the new person should have a curiosity about and desire to meet and understand our community, especially the subsets and groups that have been historically underrepresented in Philharmonic activities.

A partner in the arts: Going hand in hand with the last point, the new person should see the Phil as a leader in our arts ecosystem, while realizing it is still a part of that ecosystem. If someone were to come to town and with a competitive spirit of scarcity, and see the other music and arts groups as competitors instead of partners, this would be bad.

While I am profoundly sorry for our community that Ignacio’s stay was so brief, I wish him and his wife Brianna (as well as The Florida Orchestra) all the best on their new chapter. I also wish the best to the Reno Phil as we select a new CEO to lead us toward a thriving, vibrant, and musical future.

Scott Faulkner is director of the League of American Orchestras’ Essentials of Orchestra Management seminar, as well as its League Alumni Network. He is also principal bassist of the Reno Phil and Reno Chamber Orchestra (RCO), as well as the RCO’s former executive director.

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