Search for new Bach Fest exec begins

EUGENE- (May 31, 2006) University of Oregon president Dave Frohnmayer announced today that an international search for the next executive director of the Oregon Bach Festival has begun.

Current Executive Director Royce Saltzman, 77, will stay at the helm through the 2007 festival. At that point he will assume a new role - to ensure the festival's legacy and secure its future by guiding the completion of the festival's $10 million endowment. Currently at $4 million, the endowment is part of Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives, the university's $600 million fundraising initiative.

"Royce Saltzman's remarkable energy and vision has produced a world renowned festival that brings lustrous achievement to the University of Oregon in the performing arts," Frohnmayer said. "His talent has been crucial at every stage in the development of this wonderful festival and in the way that it has touched lives, quite literally around the world, for the better."

Frohnmayer said the university and festival board would form a search committee that will begin work this summer, with a successor expected to be in place for the 2007 festival.

"The future security of the festival is critical, and to that end I feel my energy and commitment need to be focused on assuring we reach our $10 million goal," Saltzman said. "There are exciting days ahead, and I want to be part of making them happen."

Helmuth Rilling, the festival's artistic director, said "the international music community has benefited for many years and in many ways from Royce's leadership. Together we will work to ensure that his legacy, this great music, taking place in such a supportive community, will continue."

Festival board president Robert Fraser, who has overseen the launch of the endowment and a record increase in corporate sponsorship, said that Saltzman's intent to head the fund raising drive is an important step for the organization. "The board received Royce's announcement with sadness but with affection and the understanding that he deserves time to smell the roses," he said. "We are indebted to this quintessential gentleman for giving this community a gift of incomparable music."

Saltzman came to the university's School of Music in 1964 and served as the school's associate dean for 12 years. He has served on five National Endowment for the Arts panels and also has been national president of the American Choral Directors Association and president of the International Federation for Choral Music. He received Germany's Order of the Cross of Merit, its highest political-cultural award, in 1994, and was named Eugene's First Citizen in 1997.

Under Saltzman's leadership, the festival has grown from a one-concert workshop into a $1.6 million international event, drawing audiences of 30,000 annually with coverage from news organizations including National Public Radio, the New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, and the Times of London.

The 2006 festival takes place June 30-July 16.