READING, PA – The Reading Symphony Orchestra has announced the hiring of David Gross as its new Executive Director.
Gross previously served as the President and CEO of the San Antonio Symphony where his accomplishments included the symphony’s successful transition to a new performing arts center and the creation of partnerships with numerous arts organizations, including Opera San Antonio, Ballet San Antonio, and the Youth Orchestra of San Antonio. In January 2017, Gross led the San Antonio Symphony in a collaboration with the Martin Luther King Commission and the MLK Mass Choir to present an MLK Community Concert, with all proceeds from the concert donated to the MLK Scholarship Fund. He was additionally responsible for developing a partnership with the Majestic Theater to co-present a new series of movies with live symphony orchestra, which grossed $700,000 last season. Under Gross’ leadership the San Antonio Symphony’s education programs grew in size, eventually serving 45,000 students annually, a fifty percent increase over the course of three years. Gross was actively involved in all aspects of the San Antonio Symphony including artistic planning, fundraising, and marketing.
Gross has a collective thirty years of experience in the orchestral field, having held additional positions as the President and CEO of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and Executive Director of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Gross served as principal timpanist with both the Grand Rapids Symphony and the Kansas City Philharmonic.
Gross previously performed with the RSO in January 1978, under the baton of Maestro Sydney Rothstein in a program featuring Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, together with Mendelssohn’s Capriccio Brillante for Piano and Orchestra, which featured his wife Deborah Dundore as piano soloist. Deborah, a Reading native, had performed with the RSO as a soloist once before as a winner of a high school student competition organized by the orchestra.
“I’m looking forward to coming back to this part of the country. My wife and I met in school and I was always very familiar with Reading and Berks County,” said Gross. “There is a great tradition of support for the symphony and I look forward to being part of that, and to support Music Director Andrew Constantine’s mission for the orchestra and help create new partnerships and collaborations in this great community.”
“I’m very excited at the prospect of working with David as our new CEO at the Reading Symphony Orchestra,” said Music Director Andrew Constantine. “David brings a wealth of experience from both sides of the stage, and his understanding of current trends, issues and developments in the orchestra industry will be invaluable to us. It also feels, in a sense, that it was just ‘meant to be’ and it is an inevitable homecoming for both David and his wife Deborah.”
The RSO’s performances in the 2017-18 season include Gems, Jewels & Masterpieces on October 14 at the Santander Performing Arts Center; Bach and the Reformation on October 29 at Atonement Lutheran Church; An Evening of Fantasy on November 11 at the Santander Performing Arts Center; New Year’s Eve with Time for Three on December 31 at the Santander Performing Arts Center; Happy Birthday, Amadeus! on January 27 at the Scottish Rite Cathedral; Soaring Strings on March 3 at the Scottish Rite Cathedral; Glorious Gershwin on April 14 at the Santander Performing Arts Center; and Picture This! on May 5 at the Santander Performing Arts Center.
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