BREAKING NEWS: Another Leadership Change At Louisville

It has been just over one week since former Louisville Orchestra general manager Robert McGrath announced he was leaving that position for a similar position with the St. Louis Symphony and now the organization’s executive director, Scott Provancher, has announced that he submitted his resignation to the orchestra’s board earlier today…


Confirmation of Scott’s departure came during a telephone interview with him on 03/08/06. Scott said that he has had conversations with board president Joe Pusateri regarding the issue and he presented his resignation to the full board earlier today.

“The decision to resign was a personal one and after talking with my family I decided that resigning was the right thing to do,” said Scott. “However, I have offered to stay on to help the transition process if the board desires.”

When asked about how he felt the mediation process was coming along Scott said that he felt really good after the initial sessions but he became disappointed that the players decided to conduct a full vote on one of their initial offers before he felt that the offer was fully vetted. Scott also indicated that he’s less encouraged now that the vote’s outcome have been made public but hopes that the mediation process can still provide the organization with a mutually agreeable solution.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

Related Posts

2 thoughts on “BREAKING NEWS: Another Leadership Change At Louisville”

Leave a Reply to Susan F. Cancel reply