Oakland Symphony Appoints Dr. Mieko Hatano New Executive Director

Oakland Symphony Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Mieko Hatano as its new Executive Director, effective June 4, 2018.  As Executive Director, Dr. Hatano will oversee the Oakland Symphony, the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Oakland Symphony Chorus, and the Oakland Symphony’s MUSE and related youth-music-education programs. She will work closely with Music Director and Conductor Michael Morgan.

 

“I am honored to be joining Michael Morgan and the Oakland Symphony family to serve the Oakland community,” says Hatano. “We share a commitment and vision for the 21st century orchestra in which tradition and innovation are complementary and programming is inclusive, accessible, and equitable. I look forward to working with the Symphony's outstanding musicians, board, and staff to engage the city of Oakland with extraordinary musical experiences.”

 

“I am thrilled to start the next chapter at the Oakland Symphony working alongside Dr. Hatano who will bring tremendous experience to the task of building on the symphony's recent successes,” says Morgan.

 

Prior to joining Oakland Symphony, Dr. Hatano served as Executive Director of Music in the Mountains in Nevada City, CA where she directed the $1M classical music organization featuring a 7-concert choral and orchestral series, a 2-week summer festival, youth orchestra and other education and outreach programming. Prior to Music in the Mountains, she was the Executive Director of Symphony Orchestra Augusta in Augusta, GA where she was featured as one of Musical America’s “Rising Stars in Orchestra Leadership." Dr. Hatano is a 2012 alumna of the DeVos Institue of Arts Management Fellowship at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.  In 2011, she was appointed Orchestra Manager of the Aspen Music Festival and School.  Dr. Hatano holds a Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

 

Dr. Hatano replaces Interim Executive Director Cristine Kelly.  Kelly oversaw one of the most successful seasons in recent Oakland Symphony history including a 35% growth in single ticket revenue and the launch of the new series, ?Mixtape. 

 

"The board of directors is grateful to Cristine Kelly for her leadership during the past ten months,” said Board of Directors President Robert Kidd.  "Since stepping in as Interim Executive Director, Cristine has done an admirable job of leading the Symphony’s administrative staff and helping to shape the Symphony’s vision of connecting to the greater Oakland and East Bay communities.”

 

The 2017-18 Oakland Symphony Season concludes on Friday, May 18 at the Paramount Theatre with a concert celebrating Leonard Bernstein’s Centennial with his Serenade after Plato’s Symposium for Violin & Orchestra, along with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.6 ‘Pathétique’ in B minor, Op 74. Mixtape, Volume 4 will take place on Thursday, June 14 at JCC East Bay.