Santa Fe Pro Musica names Alex Shapiro as new executive director
Alex Shapiro was excited and ready to move to town when Santa Fe Pro Musica offered him the job of executive director.
“I’ve wanted to live in Santa Fe for a long time,” he said at the group’s Luisa Street office. “When I was searching for a new job, Santa Fe Pro Musica rose to the top of my list.”
Pro Musica’s co-founder Thomas O’Connor was functioning as general director and artistic director before Shapiro came on board on April 7. Now, O’Connor is able to concentrate his efforts and energy on the music.
“I’m just starting to absorb what all of this means to me,” O’Connor said. “The transition is more emotional than I expected. I have to get used to not feeling guilty about being in my studio doing music during the day.”
O’Connor and his wife, flutist Carol Redman, founded Santa Fe Pro Musica in 1980. The organization has undergone various incarnations through the years, including an affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution that resulted in a 2008 Grammy nomination for Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde,” which was recorded in the Francoys-Bernier concert hall in Québec, Canada in 2003. Its mission to present concerts and offer educational opportunities for youth has remained constant.
“It’s been a long time since the organization felt like my baby,” O’Connor said. “So many people have provided help and support along the way. It’s not mine any more. Santa Fe Pro Musica is a community resource and belongs to the community.”
Although Shapiro has been the executive director for organizations that are struggling or near the brink of falling apart, he said he’s delighted that Santa Fe Pro Musica is in “a relatively healthy position.”
“It has a great presence and present and is a wonderful organization,” he added. “The early spade work doesn’t need to be done. The board of directors is an engaged group. Tom and the rest of the staff are terrific.”
Shapiro left his position as director of development at San Francisco’s Museum of Performance & Design, formerly called the San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum, to join Pro Musica’s staff. Prior jobs include director of fund development at Northern California Cancer Center in Fremont, executive director of San Francisco Bay Area Book Council, executive director of DANCE Cleveland in Ohio and director of development at AIDS Foundation of Chicago.
He said his goals do not include making major changes at Santa Fe Pro Musica but rather refining, streamlining and enhancing operations. He wants to increase donor programs and make sure that current and new donors feel engaged. “I am looking for ways to make giving to this organization more rewarding,” he said. “That will include recognizing generosity a bit more.”
Santa Fe Pro Musica’s annual operating budget of $800,000 supports six staff members, local musicians, guest artists and other administrative and venue costs. In 1998, 20 percent of the period instrument players who performed with the ensemble lived in the Santa Fe area. Today, 80 percent of these musicians are locals. Paying internationally known guest artists to come to town costs a bit of money, but O’Connor says they’re well worth it.
“When we present musicians like John Elwes, who sang the role of the Evangelist in Bach’s ‘St. John Passion’ that we presented in March, we’re bringing in specialists,” O’Connor said. “I am increasingly aware of John’s excellence. In certain areas, he isn’t among the best. He is the best. I feel that all of us at Santa Fe Pro Musica learn how to make music better by working with superb musicians like John.”
Shapiro wholeheartedly supports the presentation of world-class artists alongside the organization’s core group of musicians and plans to be at concerts with his partner, Raymond Berger.
“I really like Santa Fe Pro Musica’s varied and rich programming and want to see it continued,” Shapiro said. “Right now we’re putting next season together, and what I can say is that it will be similar in scope to what took place this year. One of my goals as executive director is to build more awareness of our upcoming season.”
