“Tucson Symphony Orchestra on Wednesday named a symphony insider as its new president/CEO,” writes Cathalena E. Burch in Tuesday’s (3/28) Arizona Daily Star. “Thomas J. McKinney, the orchestra’s vice president of development, replaces outgoing TSO President/CEO Mark Blakeman, who is leaving in late May after three years to head up the new McKnight Center for the Performing Arts at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. TSO Board Chairman Cecile Follansbee, in a written release, praised McKinney as being a driving force in the orchestra’s three-year strategic community engagement program to ‘educate and transform our community with music.’ McKinney has served in his development role since with the orchestra since September 2015…. McKinney, a New England native with more than 30 years experience in nonprofit organizations, has deep Tucson ties going back to the 1980s when he was the cast manager for the Tucson-based Up with People. His wife, Dee Dee Connel, is a Canyon del Oro High School graduate and former bassoonist with the Tucson Philharmonia Youth Orchestra. Many of her family members still live in the city.”
Posted March 29, 2017
