Lauri talks with Andrew ("Andy") Brown, President and CEO of Pacific Chorale, who was one of several organizations who won a Grammy® award this year for Choral Performance, and became the first performing arts organization in SoCal's Orange County to receive that honor. We talk about what that means for a choir, what comes next, and what being an excellent singer on his own does for an arts administrator for a large organization.
Read more about Pacific Chorale and their upcoming season:
https://www.pacificchorale.org/
Read about the award on the Singerpreneur blog: https://singerpreneur.com/2022/04/with-a-single-award-the-grammys-just-honored-a-whole-lotta-people-in-the-southland/
___________________________________________________
ANDREW BROWN — PRESIDENT & CEO, PACIFIC CHORALE
Andrew Brown is President & CEO of the GRAMMY Award-winning Pacific Chorale, the resident chorus at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA. The critically acclaimed choir presents its own concert series each season and frequently collaborates with world class ensembles such as Pacific Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Brown is responsible for guiding all facets of the non-profit organization, which has an annual budget of $3 million. He also collaborates directly with Artistic Director Robert Istad to help transform his artistic vision for the choir into reality, shepherding both day-to-day and long-term artistic endeavors.
Since joining Pacific Chorale in December 2018, Brown has bolstered the organization’s fiscal health, built an operating cash reserve fund, and increased its permanent endowment. On the artistic front, he has managed several landmark projects, including Istad’s first recording with the chorus, All Things Common (2020), featuring works of Tarik O’Regan on Yarlung Records, and the strategic development of the choir’s significant digital presence with programs such as Tis the Season!,the Chorale’s first virtual concert gala, which was live-streamed to more than 5,000 households in December 2021 and raised over $250,000 for the choir. He also oversaw the production of The Wayfaring Project, the chorus’ compelling concert film weaving a Bach motet with contemporary works that was broadcast nationwide in December 2021 on PBS, which draws 80 million viewers monthly. The popular film continues to be streamed on pbssocal.org, kcet.org, and the PBS app. Under Brown’s leadership, in July 2023, Pacific Chorale will embark on its first international tour in seven years with appearances in Austria, Germany, and the United Kingdom, further expanding its global presence.
Previously, Brown served as Chief Operating Officer of the Los Angeles Master Chorale having risen through its administrative ranks during a 17-year tenure with the organization. As COO, he demonstrated his strong track record of initiating and leading change, strengthening operations, and innovating in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. As a professional singer, Brown, a tenor, also sang with LA Master Chorale for ten seasons and performed with several other Southern California-based professional choral ensembles. He can be heard on numerous recordings and film scores and made a featured on-camera singing appearance in the hit CBS television series, How I Met Your Mother. Brown earned an M.A. in Arts Management and an M.B.A. from the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, and a Bachelor's degree in music education from Ball State University.