OREGON SYMPHONY - Key Persons
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- Hank Swigert Director of Education and Community Engagement
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- Director
- Member of the Advisory Committee
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- Member of the Advisory Committee
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- Member of the Advisory Committee
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- Patron Services Representative
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- Assistant Director of Operations and Production
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- Vice President for Artistic Planning
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- Liacco, Website and Digital Content Manager
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- Patron Services Representative
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- Director of Popular Programming
Powerfully compelling, Deanna Tham is known for her captivating and tenacious spirit on and off the podium. She is currently the Associate Conductor of the Oregon Symphony and Music Director of the Union Symphony Orchestra.
Previously, Tham was the Assistant Conductor of the Omaha Symphony, following her tenure as Assistant Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony and Principal Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestras. She has performed at the Proms in Royal Albert Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and Seiji Ozawa Hall at the Tanglewood Music Center working with Maestros James Ross, Joseph Young, and Sir Antonio Pappano, as well as renowned artists Isobel Leonard and Joyce DiDonato. Guest engagements include the Oregon Symphony, Spokane Symphony, Ballet Idaho, Opera Idaho, OrpheusPDX, and 45th Parallel. Recent highlights include leading the all-women Broadway Sinfonietta in the world-premiere of Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse live with symphonic score, Jacksonville Symphony's first educational Martin Luther King Jr. tribute concert and the Union Symphony's first city-community Pops on the Plaza collaboration of Latin American pop and classical music.
Tham is passionate about cross-genre collaborations. These projects include full-feature blockbuster movie scores, collaborations with Cirque Musica, broadway artists, pop cover groups like Jeans 'n Classics, independent artists like Silent Film Score connoisseur and composer, Ben Model, Southern Range Brewery, the Louisville Ballet Academy, and the International Culinary Arts and Sciences Institute. She is additionally a staunch advocate of music education from school education engagement and youth orchestral performing opportunities to lifelong learning. Tham has also written original school-curriculum-based programs for numerous symphony orchestras and collaborated with organizations including the Central Academy for Technology and Arts.
Tham is a second-place winner in the Youth Orchestra Conductor division of the American Prize. She has worked with renowned conductors Marin Alsop, James Ross, Victor Yampolsky, and Ken Kiesler. In 2013, Tham's work with the festival was featured on National Public Radio as well as American Public Media. Tham holds a Professional Studies Certificate from the Cleveland Institute of Music in Orchestral Conducting studying with Maestro Carl Topilow. She received her Master of Music in conducting with conducting program honors from Northwestern University studying with Dr. Mallory Thompson. Tham received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in horn performance studying with Dennis Abelson, Zachary Smith, Bob Lauver, and Steven Kostyniak at Carnegie Mellon University.
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- Member of the Advisory Committee
- Secretary
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- Member of the Advisory Committee
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- Marketing Operations Coordinator
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- Member of the Advisory Committee
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- Community Leader
- Lifetime Director
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- Director of Orchestra Personnel
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- Director of Operations and Production
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- Member of the Advisory Committee
- Vice President for Development
For Oregon Symphony in Salem ticketing inquiries, please call the Ticket Office at 503-228-1353 or email orsymphony@orsymphony.org
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Director
- President
- CEO, Ex - Officio
- Managing Director of the New York Philharmonic
Isaac Thompson has advanced orchestras through artistic innovation, promoting inclusive leadership, and by embedding institutions more deeply into the fabric of their communities. He was appointed to the position of President & CEO at the Oregon Symphony, beginning in October 2023.
As Managing Director of the New York Philharmonic, Thompson was part of the leadership team that opened the newly renovated David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, and was part of the search committee that culminated in the appointment of Gustavo Dudamel as Music and Artistic Director. He helped navigate the Philharmonic through the pandemic, implementing programs that deepened connections with the New York City community and transforming the institution's diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Thompson joined the Philharmonic as Vice President of Artistic Planning in 2017. During his six-year tenure, he developed two new contemporary music series, and was responsible for commissioning more than 30 world premieres including multidisciplinary works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe, and a collaboration with Tazewell Thompson exploring the Black experience as part of the first season of the new David Geffen Hall. He also oversaw touring activities, including the Philharmonic's recent tours and residencies in Europe and Asia-the first American orchestra to return to those regions following the pandemic.
Thompson previously served as the director of artistic administration for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and the Cincinnati May Festival where he partnered with artistic and executive leadership to bolster the orchestra's profile both nationally and internationally, resulting in the CSO's debut appearance at the BBC Proms and the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Previously, he was the vice president of artistic planning for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
Thompson has served on the boards of the League of American Orchestras and American Composers Forum since 2019 and was appointed to the board of trustees of Minnesota Public Radio in 2023.
A former violinist, Thompson received degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and University of Texas at Austin. He has performed at the Aspen, Round Top, Great Mountains (Korea), Opera and Music and Theater of Lucca (Italy) festivals.
Job Titles:
- Community Leader
- Lifetime Director
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- Vice President for Finance and Administration
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- Assistant Ticket Office Manager
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- Member of the Advisory Committee
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- Finance and Administration Associate
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- Member of the Advisory Committee
- Vice President of the Advisory Committee
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- Member of the Advisory Committee
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- Assistant Director of Development
- Member of the Advisory Committee
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- Member of the Advisory Committee
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- Member of the Advisory Committee
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- Applications Administrator
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- Assistant
- Orchestra Personnel Manager
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- Director of Stewardship & Events
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- Member of the Advisory Committee
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- Director
- Washington Trust Bank
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- Director
- Windermere Realty Trust
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- Member of the Advisory Committee
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- Director
- Williston Financial
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- Patron Services Representative
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- Creative Services and Publications
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- Patron Services Representative
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- Patron Services Representative
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- Founding Member and Executive Director of Classical Up Close
Sarah Kwak was appointed Concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony in 2012. Since then, she has performed to critical acclaim throughout Oregon. Hailed as a "world-class soloist," Kwak is renowned for her "lyrical depth, thoughtful phrasing, myriad shadings of tone and easy technical prowess." After her concerto debut with the Oregon Symphony, the Oregonian said she "tore it up in a performance as dazzling as any recent star guest soloist."
Sarah joined the Oregon Symphony after serving as first Associate Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1988 to 2012 and Acting Concertmaster from January 2010 to September 2011. Kwak, a 2008 McKnight Artist Fellowship winner, has appeared with many orchestras as soloist including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and Curtis Chamber Orchestra. The first artist ever to capture all three memorial awards at the Washington International Competition, Kwak also won the 1989 WAMSO Young Artist Competition. An avid chamber musician, she has toured nationally with "Musicians from Marlboro" and internationally with the Casa Verde Trio. She was a founding member of the Rosalyra String Quartet, which made its New York debut in 1996 and was awarded a McKnight Artist Fellowship in 2000. She has served on the faculty of Princeton University and at the University of Nevada at Reno.
She has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest Festival, Portland Piano International Summer Festival, Pensacola Festival, Pittsburgh Summerfest, Bargemusic of New York, Festival Mozart in France, Siletz Bay and Astoria Festivals. In 2014, she was appointed Concertmaster of the Oregon Bach Festival and has toured with Asia Philharmonic Orchestra under Myung-Whun Chung. In addition, she has served as guest Concertmaster with the Utah Symphony.
Born in Boston and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, Kwak studied briefly at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik before entering the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 12. Among her teachers were Joseph Sivo, Ivan Galamian, and Szymon Goldberg.
Kwak is a founding member and Executive Director of Classical Up Close, a non-profit organization whose mission is to to make classical music accessible to all by presenting free chamber music concerts in neighborhoods around the Portland metro area where people live, work and play.
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- Executive Assistant and Board Liaison
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- Development Associate for Annual Giving
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- General Manager
- Vice President
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- Patron Services Representative
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- Member of the Advisory Committee
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- Patron Services Representative
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- Patron Services Representative
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- Community Leader
- Lifetime Director
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- Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations
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- Community Leader
- Lifetime Director
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- Manager of Artistic Administration