Borda’s surprise move back to N.Y. orchestra
In an announcement that caught the music world by surprise, the New York Philharmonic has named Deborah Borda as its new president and CEO, beginning May 1. It’s a position that Borda held once before, for a decade during the 1990s, before leaving to head the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Borda, 67, has been a major figure on the orchestral scene for decades, holding senior executive posts with the Detroit Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony before being hired by the New York Philharmonic — for the first time — in 1990. At the time, she was the first woman to head a major American orchestra.
Since 2000, Borda has been the president and CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which has grown under her leadership to become one of the nation’s notable orchestral success stories. She hired the popular young music director Gustavo Dudamel — a visionary move at a time when most orchestras considered him a rising star whose moment had not yet arrived — and oversaw the completion of the orchestra’s new home in the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall.
The New York position, meanwhile, brings with it a host of challenges. The previous chief executive, Matthew VanBesien, stepped down unexpectedly in January, along with a handful of other top executives. The organization’s financial picture is reportedly cloudy, and the orchestra is about to vacate its home — long known as Avery Fisher Hall but recently renamed David Geffen Hall — for an extended, and expensive, renovation. The next music director, the Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden, doesn’t arrive on the scene for another year.
So Borda, who has never been known to shrink from a fight, will have her work cut out for her. But she has a long track record of success, both financial and artistically, and an optimistic view of the matter suggests that she may be the administrator best suited to righting the course of the nation’s oldest major orchestra.