The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has named Rachel S. Moore, president and CEO of The Music Center, among its distinguished Class of 2020 inductees. Founded in 1780, the prestigious Honor Society recognizes excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together "to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people."
Moore is among 276 artists, scholars, scientists and leaders in the public, non-profit and private sectors inducted this year, including singer, songwriter and activist Joan Baez, former U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., author Ann Patchett, lawyer Anita Hill and filmmaker Richard Linklater. The full list of new members can be found in AAAS' announcement. Historically among its ranks, AAAS has also elected numerous dignitaries such as Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton in the eighteenth century; Ralph Waldo Emerson and Maria Mitchell in the nineteenth; and Robert Frost, Margaret Mead, Milton Friedman and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the twentieth. International honorary members include Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Laurence Olivier, John Maynard Keynes, Akira Kurosawa and Nelson Mandela.
Moore leads The Music Center, one of the nation's largest performing arts organizations, which serves as an anchor arts and civic institution in Los Angeles County. She heads the $70 million company that manages and operates The Music Center campus, including four theatres, the expansive Music Center Plaza and the adjacent 12-acre Grand Park through TMC Ops, on behalf of the County of Los Angeles, and provides artistic direction for The Music Center's programming by TMC Arts, which presents world-class dance performances, nationally recognized K-12 arts education programs and free and low-cost public events. Moore was named "CEO of the Year" by the Los Angeles Business Journal's 2019 Women's Council and Awards.
Moore has been a positive change agent since joining The Music Center in October 2015. She established a new institutional structure that includes TMC Ops and TMC Arts, which helped position the organization to embrace both its operational and artistic roles. She also created a new executive position to lead TMC Arts with the focus of developing more programming that is reflective and responsive to the wide diversity and changing demographics of Los Angeles. Partnering with board leadership, Moore successfully revitalized The Music Center's board of directors, focusing on women and people of color to successfully
diversify board composition from six percent to 33 percent, which added fresh perspectives and skills to the organization's strategic initiatives. She secured a long-term lease for The Music Center, which runs the performing arts center on behalf of Los Angeles County in a public-private partnership. Moore also brought to fruition the long-standing plan to renovate The Music Center's Plaza into a more open and progressive environment for county residents and visitors. She was key to the fundraising of the Plaza's renovation and instrumental in securing the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors' financial support; after a 20-month renovation, the Plaza reopened, on budget, on August 28, 2019, to much community and civic fanfare. Moore also spearheaded the development of the TMC Arts Fund that endeavors to broaden access to the arts for all communities of Los Angeles through public programs, education and dance as The Music Center seeks to deepen the cultural lives of all in Los Angeles County; the fund launched with $14 million.
Rachel S. Moore is president and CEO of The Music Center, Los Angeles' premier performing arts center. She leads the $70 million company that manages The Music Center campus and Grand Park through TMC Ops and oversees The Music Center's programming created by its programming engine, TMC Arts. She serves as presenter and curator of an internationally acclaimed dance series, Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center, as well as several innovative programs, events and activities that are introducing new audiences to the performing arts. Additionally, she guides The Music Center's multi-faceted K-12 arts education initiatives, which reach over 600,000 children and youth in Southern California. Moore joined The Music Center from American Ballet Theatre (ABT), where she most recently served as CEO since 2011 and as its executive director since 2004. She comes from the performing arts, having danced with ABT as a member of its corps de ballet from 1984-1988. Moore has served as director of Boston Ballet's Center for Dance Education (2001-2004); executive director of Project STEP, a classical music school for students of color in Boston; and managing director of Ballet Theatre of Boston. She has also held senior positions with Americans for the Arts and the National Cultural Alliance, both in Washington, D.C., and was named CEO of the Year by the Los Angeles Business Journal's 2019 Women's Council & Awards. She is chair of the Performing Arts Center Consortium and an officer and trustee of the Economic Club of New York. She served on the advisory committee for the Los Angeles County Equity and Inclusion Initiative and on the L.A. 2028 Olympic Games Bid Committee. Moore was elected as a member into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and serves on the Executive Committee of the Central City Association of Los Angeles among other board and committee responsibilities. She is the author of a book, The Artist's Compass: The Complete Guide to Building a Life and a Living in the Performing Arts (May 2016). She holds an A.B. in Ethics & Political Philosophy from Brown University, Phi Beta Kappa, Honors (1992); and an M.A. in Arts Management from Columbia University (1994). She received an honorary doctorate in Musical Arts from the Colburn School.
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