Performances + Events
In transforming what a 21st-century music education looks and sounds like, New England Conservatory’s leadership is leaning into the spirit of collaboration that has long fueled the institution’s work.
In mid-August, Thomas Blumenthal, chair of NEC’s Board of Trustees, announced that the Conservatory had adopted a co-equal leadership structure in which President Andrea Kalyn will continue to focus on NEC’s artistic excellence, academic vision, and educational mission, and CEO Kathleen Kelly will oversee the institution’s financial health and strategy, its operations, and its institutional advancement.
Kalyn has served as NEC’s president since 2019. Kelly joined the Conservatory’s administration in 2016, serving most recently as executive vice president.
“Kathleen is stepping into a role that formalizes and builds upon the extraordinary leadership she has already been providing,” Blumenthal said. “This announcement is, in many ways, the institution catching up to reality. Together, these roles provide NEC with leadership matched to the full scope of what this moment requires.”
“We are focused on students and student outcomes, and always have been,” Kelly commented. “As the world of music has changed, and as society has changed, NEC continues to think about how we need to change to strengthen outcomes for students in all of our programs across both divisions, the College and Expanded Education.”
The co-equal leadership model, Blumenthal said, is one that numerous academic institutions and for- and non-profit organizations have adopted in recent years, as well as one that NEC has embraced before. In the early 1980s, Laurence Lesser and Andrew Falender served as the Conservatory’s president and CEO, respectively, and the College is currently led by co-deans.
“We helped each other and it worked wonderfully, because each of us had strengths separate from the other, and we also felt a lot of comfort in working with each other,” Lesser said of his administrative collaboration with Falender. “The new structure is bound to be of great benefit to our institution.”
“We’ve essentially adopted a ‘chamber music’ approach to leadership,” Kalyn said, pointing out that two women are at the helm of a major conservatory. “We bring complementary strengths and a collaborative approach to the responsibility of advancing NEC’s mission and impact in a transformative time for higher ed and the institution.”
“We are excited,” Kalyn and Kelly wrote to the NEC community in response to Blumenthal’s announcement. “Formalizing this leadership structure gives us the clarity to move with intention and momentum.” While acknowledging that “the urgency is real,” and that “the challenges facing NEC and conservatories everywhere are not waiting for convenient timing,” Kalyn and Kelly emphasized, “Neither are we.”
