“The plucky Astoria Music Festival is growing up and now needs a full-time director to lead it,” writes David Stabler in Monday’s (1/6) Oregonian (Portland, Oregon). “Linda Magee, the former, longtime executive director of Chamber Music Northwest, will help the festival find that person.… Previously, volunteers ran the show, presenting opera, symphonic works and chamber music. Founded 11 years ago, the Astoria Music Festival has grown from a group of college kids putting on shows in a musty theater into Oregon’s top summer opera event. The three-weekend festival, under artistic director Keith Clark, now draws sellout crowds to a gleaming, restored Liberty Theater…. Last summer, the festival presented 26 concerts and four operas…. Its operating budget this year is $362,000, Magee said…. Magee stressed that her 12-month job was as a consultant, not a permanent position. “I’ll be a traffic director,’ she said, writing grants to fund the new position, raising money from other sources, developing marketing plans and working with the board of directors. Going from no paid staff to one is a big leap, she said. ‘It’s putting a lot of nuts and bolts together, like having a real office…. It’s just miraculous that it’s done as well as it has.’ ”
Posted January 7, 2014
