In Wednesday’s (11/11) San Francisco Chronicle, Joshua Kosman writes that Ruth Felt, founder of San Francisco Performances and its president for the past 26 years, “will step down in the fall of 2016, leaving an operation that has been both artistically important and fiscally sound. The roster of artists that have passed through on her watch is astonishing in its breadth and variety—from cellist Yo-Yo Ma to the Paul Taylor Dance Company, and from baritone Thomas Hampson to jazz great Wynton Marsalis.… Felt has already plotted out the scheduled for the 2016-17 season, as well as a good portion of 2017-18. The board of directors has formed a search committee to find a successor. Felt formed San Francisco Performances in 1979, when she was on staff at the San Francisco Opera…. ‘I saw that in San Francisco there was very little presentation of chamber music and vocal recitals. I loved contemporary dance, and there wasn’t a theater in San Francisco really suitable. And I’d always been a big jazz fan … So that was the artistic mission.’ … Performers have found San Francisco Performances a fertile venue for ambitious programming projects…. And Felt has been active in spearheading arts education and outreach programs.”
Posted November 12, 2015
