Utah Symphony and Utah Opera have chosen their new president and CEO, a veteran executive who has worked for orchestras across the nation.
Steven Brosvik, who has been chief operations officer at the Nashville Symphony since 2015, will take the helm at Utah Symphony | Utah Opera starting Aug. 17, USUO announced Wednesday. He succeeds Patricia A. Richards, who has been interim president and CEO since last September.
In a statement, Tom Love, chairman of USUO’s board, praised Brosvik’s “calm and confident leadership, innovative programming ideas, decades of experience and industry knowledge.”
Brosvik said in a statement that USUO — with its combination of Utah Symphony, Utah Opera, the Deer Valley Music Festival and educational programs — “offers a wealth of opportunity to create richly artistic and innovative programs and partnerships to serve a growing and evolving community.”
Before his job in Nashville, Brosvik spent 10 years as general manager of the Houston Symphony. Before that, he was executive director of the San Antonio Symphony, and vice president and general manager of the Baltimore Symphony.
His wife, Cassandra, is a violinist and youth orchestra director. They have three daughters, who are studying at George Washington University, New York University and Interlochen Arts Academy. They also have a dog, Finley, and a cat, Sinatra.
Thierry Fischer, the Utah Symphony’s conductor and music director, called Brosvik “the natural leader USUO needs at this time.” One of Brosvik’s biggest tasks in the next two years will be helping select a successor to Fischer, who is leaving the symphony when his contract expires in August 2022.
Christopher McBeth, artistic director of Utah Opera, praised Brosvik’s “extensive symphony experience,” and said his hiring “inspires in me a high level of confidence during these challenging times for the performing arts and the world.”
USUO canceled the spring portion of the symphony’s and opera’s 2019-20 seasons when the coronavirus pandemic struck, and later canceled the summer Deer Valley Music Festival. All 85 musicians, and much of its office staff, were furloughed in late March.
The symphony aims to start its 2020-21 season in mid-September, and the opera plans an October reopening with Richard Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman.”
