In Thursday’s (12/16) Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tennessee), Barry Courter writes, “Kathy Allison has worn many hats over the years, and all of them helped prepare her for her job as operations manager of the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera. Allison spent 30 years teaching music in the Hamilton County school system. During that time she was also costume mistress with the CSO. … Before taking the CSO job, she was dean of fine arts at the Center for Creative Arts.” What are the necessary talents for doing her job? “I think my job at the Center for Creative Arts was the job that best prepared me for this,” Allison says. “As dean of fine arts, I was responsible for a successful production; and also budgeting, planning, scheduling. There are a lot of organizational skills. We were a school but also a production company. With the symphony, it’s everything from planning the production to packing it away. It is different because of the guest artists. You have to book their hotels, plan their schedules and their itinerary, hospitality, travel. It calls upon every communication skill there is.”
Posted December 17, 2010
