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OC Insider: Musical Chairs

The baton is being passed at Pacific Symphony, which last week named Alexander Shelley as its next artistic and music director.

Shelley has served as music director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa since 2015, among other notable roles. He will be the third person to take on the musical director role and follows the 35-year tenure of Carl St. Clair.

Shelley, trained in the cello, “has captured the hearts and has inspired the musicians of Pacific Symphony, ensuring that the future of [the organization] is in great hands as we lead into our 50th anniversary,” St. Clair, who becomes music director laureate in 2025-26, said in a video announcement last week.

Shelley will begin in 2025-26 as music director designate and then start a five-year term as music director for the Irvine nonprofit, one of OC’s largest art-focused organizations.
Founded in 1978 and helmed by CEO John Forsyte, Pacific Symphony in 2023 ranked No. 24 among OC’s largest nonprofits, by revenue.

Revenue for the symphony totaled $24.4M for the 12 months ended June 30, up 3% year-over-year; our next listing of the area’s top nonprofits runs in the Dec. 2 print edition.

The symphony, which has performed more than 80 paid events each year since the pandemic, reported annual ticket revenue of about $6.5M in each of the last two seasons.

Single ticket sales set a record last season as subscriptions declined, “an occurrence for many U.S. arts organizations,” it said.

“I am so optimistic about the coming years with the symphony,” Shelley said last week.

“Not only are there extraordinary networks built into the community, but the orchestra is renowned in the region, across the country and across the world.”

Changes have taken place at another local nonprofit used to playing before big crowds.

Last month Jamie Davis started as CEO for USA Water Polo.

The Irvine-based group, which ranked No. 34 in our 2023 list for OC’s top nonprofits with $16.1M in revenue, saw their previous CEO, Christopher Ramsey, retire after the Paris Olympics.

Davis previously served as CEO of Colorado-based USA Volleyball, where he grew membership from 339,000 in 2017 to 435,000 this year, while “also delivering the largest surplus in the organization’s history, increasing assets from $3.2M to $35M,” the water polo association said.

Easterseals Southern California, No. 29 on last year’s local nonprofit list with $22M in revenue, got a boost early this month with a fundraiser at the Newport Beach home of real estate exec Barry Saywitz, whose annual Evening for Autism event drew several hundred attendees.

The event, benefitting Easterseals Disability Services, had a number of musical acts take the stage, including one unexpected guest, rap icon Snoop Dogg, who was effusive in praise for the founder of Newport Beach’s Saywitz Co.

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Sonia Chung
Sonia Chung
Sonia Chung joined the Orange County Business Journal in 2021 as their Marketing Creative Director. In her role she creates all visual content as it relates to the marketing needs for the sales and events teams. Her responsibilities include the creation of marketing materials for six annual corporate events, weekly print advertisements, sales flyers in correspondence to the editorial calendar, social media graphics, PowerPoint presentation decks, e-blasts, and maintains the online presence for Orange County Business Journal’s corporate events.
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