Acadiana Symphony Orchestra & Conservatory of Music has announced that it will appoint Rebecca Doucet as its interim executive director following the announcement that Executive Director Jenny Krueger has accepted a position in Idaho as the executive director of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony.
“Jenny has been an extremely valuable asset to both our organization and to our community,” says ASO President Brandon Hyde in a release announcing Krueger’s departure. “It has been a pleasure working with her and I will be eternally grateful for her efforts in making our organization one of the premier arts and education organizations in the region.”
Sun Valley Summer Symphony held a national search for its new executive director.
Doucet, who has 20 years of nonprofit experience, has worked closely in a leadership role with Krueger and the ASO team for the last few years.
The ASO is one of only three symphonies in the country that is partnered with a conservatory of music. The ASO brings high-caliber, artistic performances and educational experiences to thousands of students in the Acadiana community every year.
In 2011, under Krueger's leadership and in partnership with ASO Music Director Mariusz Smolij and with the assistance of community partners, the organization underwent a complete rebranding. The vision successfully solidified the artistic planning, fundraising and marketing of the organization.
“I am grateful for all the contributions Jenny made to the ASO, particularly to our educational activities and wish her the best for her future endeavors," says Smolij.
Krueger's passion for music education and her administrative team worked to develop and implement new education initiatives for the young and young at heart. The creation of a nine-issue-per-year arts publication, Overture magazine, which served as an adult-education piece, showed great success in growing and sustaining a diversified arts audience.
A long-term partnership with Carnegie Hall was formed during Krueger's tenure with the ASO, bringing the Carnegie Hall-produced Link Up curriculum to more than 3,000 students per year, successfully broadening the ASO’s community reach while providing quality, music-education curriculum for participating teachers and programs.
Krueger also created, piloted and successfully implemented the homegrown arts-integrated curriculum, Do-Re-ME! to more than 9,000 4- and 5-year-old at-risk/poverty students, successfully increasing kindergarten preparedness for participating students.
Krueger will assume her new position on May 15 with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, the largest privately funded, free-admission classical music festival in America. It brings more than 100 world-class musicians from North America’s most respected orchestras to the Sun Valley Pavilion stage every July and August.
Internationally renowned guest artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell and Renée Fleming join the Sun Valley Summer Symphony each year. The Sun Valley Summer Symphony also has an active school of music that provides music lessons, classes and workshops to the youth of the Sun Valley area.