League Of American Orchestras Announces Six New Board Members

Charles Dickerson III, Jerrold Eberhardt, Mary Louise Gorno,Jennifer Koh, Isaac Thompson, and Sheila Williams have joined the League of American Orchestras' Board of Directors, the League announced today. Each will serve three-year terms.

The Board's officers have been reelected:

• Douglas Hagerman, Chair
• Melanie Clarke, Co-Vice Chair
• Steven C. Parrish, Co-Vice Chair
• Helen Shaffer, Secretary
• Burton Alter, Treasurer

Additionally, two new ex-officio members have joined the Board:

• Terry Ann White, Amarillo, TX (Volunteer Council)
• David Whitehill, Asheville Symphony, Asheville, NC
  (Orchestra Executive Director

The League is a membership organization comprised of more than 2,000 orchestras, organizations, and individuals from across North America.

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Charles ("Chuck") Dickerson III is Founder, Executive Director, and Conductor of the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles; Director of Music at Rolling Hills United Methodist Church; and Director of the Leo Baeck Temple Chorus, the Jubilee Choir, and the Orchestral Studies Department of California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is also currently overseeing the creation and development of the South Side Chicago Youth Orchestra and the Youth Orchestra of Tsakane, South Africa. Dickerson served as City Attorney of the City of Inglewood, California, and as President of the Board of Public Works of the City of Los Angeles. A former member of the Board of Directors of The Conductor's Guild, he holds a Master of Music Degree from California State University, Los Angeles with a focus on conducting, as well as a B.S. from Howard University and a J.D. from American University.

Jerrold ("Jerry") L. Eberhardt is former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, and currently serves as Vice Chairman and a member of the Executive Committee. He is the newly-elected Chairman of the Ojai Music Festival, serves on the Executive Committee of the Music Academy of the West, and is a member of the Board of Directors of The Music Center Foundation. He is a past Trustee of both the Aspen Music Festival and School and the Ravinia Festival Association, serving as Vice Chairman and a member of Ravinia's Executive committee. Eberhardt retired in 2009 after a 40-year career at Smith Barney. In 1997, he was named Senior Executive Vice President and Divisional Director for the Western Division, which included eleven states and was expanded to include Asia and Australia. Eberhardt graduated from the University of Illinois and received an MBA from the University of Cincinnati.

Mary Louise ("Mary Lou") Gorno is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chair of the Smart Museum of Art Board of Governors, and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago, among other governance roles. Managing Director of Ingenuity International Executive Search Consultants, she leads the CEO and Board practice for Fortune 500, mid-cap, and privately-owned companies. Gorno joined the executive search profession with more than two decades of experience in marketing, media, and strategic planning. As a senior executive at Leo Burnett Worldwide, an advertising agency and part of Publicis Groupe, she assumed global business-building responsibility for Reebok Inc., Walt Disney Company, and the Procter & Gamble Company. She earned a BA from Saint Mary's College, an MS in Journalism from Northwestern University, and an MBA from the University of Chicago, and received an Honorary Doctor of Humanities from Saint Mary's College.

Jennifer Koh is a violinist recognized for intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. A forward-thinking artist, she is dedicated to exploring a broad and eclectic repertoire, while promoting diversity and inclusivity in classical music. She has expanded the contemporary violin repertoire through a wide range of commissioning projects, and has premiered more than 70 works written especially for her. Her quest for the new and unusual, sense of endless curiosity, and ability to lead and inspire a host of multidisciplinary collaborators truly set her apart. Koh is Musical America's 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year and was a winner in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. She is an active lecturer, teacher, and recording artist for Cedille Records; and is the Artistic Director of arco collaborative, an artist-driven nonprofit that fosters a better understanding of our world through a musical dialogue inspired by ideas and the communities around us.

Isaac Thompson is the New York Philharmonic's Vice President, Artistic Planning. He previously served as Director of Artistic Administration for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati May Festival, where he was responsible for creating and implementing a wide variety of artistic initiatives, including season programming, commissioning, special artistic projects, and recording projects in collaboration with Music Director Louis Langrée. He was Vice President of Artistic Planning for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra for three years, in addition to serving as the orchestra's program note annotator for two seasons, and as a member of the artistic team of Music@Menlo, where he worked with artistic directors cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han. He is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and The University of Texas at Austin.

Sheila J. Williams currently serves as Board Member and Vice-chair of Community Engagement with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. She published four novels including Dancing on the Edge of the Roof (Ballantine, New York) which was adapted for the film Juanita, released by Netflix in March 2019. She continues to write fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as a libretto entitled Fierce, commissioned by the Cincinnati Opera. Her most recent novel was optioned by Harper Collins and is scheduled for publication in August 2020. Williams attended Ohio Wesleyan University and is a graduate of the University of Louisville.

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