New England Conservatory Names Its First Woman President

Oberlin Conservatory of Music Dean Andrea Kalyn is to be the next president of the New England Conservatory, starting in January.  She arrives on the heels of the 150th anniversary of NEC, which lays claim to being the oldest independent school of music in the U.S.  

Kalyn, 53, will be the 17th president and the first woman in the job; she succeeds Provost and Dean Tom Novak, who has been serving as interim during the three-year search for a successor to Tony Woodcock, in the job eight years. He left in 2015, telling the Conservatory board in a letter that the school “needs a different type of leader as its president.” Woodcock returned to the U.K. where he now acts as a consultant.

At Oberlin, which has an undergraduate enrollment of 580, Kalyn was associate dean for academic affairs for nine years before being named to her current post in 2014. She is credited with being an adept fund-raiser and has been active in entrepreneurship training for students. She created the department of Pedagogy, Advocacy, and Community Engagement (PACE) and launched a new major in jazz voice and the Artist Diploma in piano technology. She developed partnerships with Steinway & Sons and the Shanghai Conservatory, restructured the composition department, hiring Stephen Hartke as its chair, and commissioned Bernard Rands to write a concerto for English horn, in association with the Cleveland Orchestra and Oberlin faculty. She also opened a new, underground performance club and revitalized the school's recording label.

Kalyn came to Oberlin from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where she was a musicologist and assistant dean. She previously taught at Wake Forest University, Salem College, University of Rochester, and University of Western Ontario. She holds a PhD in musicology from the Eastman School of Music, with a focus on 20th-century American music, and a BM and MM in musicology from the University of Western Ontario. She also has an Associate Diploma (ARCT) in piano performance from Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music.