News
June 12, 2024Albany Symphony Appoints Emily Fritz-Endres as Executive Director
The two-time GRAMMY® Award-winning Albany Symphony is proud to announce the appointment of Emily Fritz-Endres as executive director. Emily has more than a decade of experience within the music industry, having worked for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
“We are thrilled that after a national search led by vice-chair of the board Daniel Kredentser and a dedicated search committee, Emily Fritz-Endres has been chosen as our new executive director. We were impressed by her proven leadership successes in financial management and strategic planning, and are excited to welcome her,” said Faith Ann Takes, chair of the board for the Albany Symphony. “Emily will be an excellent leader for the Symphony and together, we will ensure that the Albany Symphony will flourish even more throughout our region.”
“Emily’s creative and enterprising mind and her positive and collaborative approach to addressing challenges and opportunities stood out to our search committee. She has an engaging personality that energizes those around her; we knew she would be a great fit for the Albany Symphony,” said Daniel Kredentser. “She has proven leadership successes and we are excited to watch the organization grow toward our centennial year with Emily as our dynamic leader.”
During her time with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Emily focused on financial and facilities planning, bringing the organization into alignment with the diverse Atlanta community, artistic ambition, venue solutions, audience development, and an endowment campaign. At the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Emily served as director of board administration cultivating relationships with the orchestra’s 250 trustees and advisors. She organized projects including the opening of the Linde Center for Music and Learning at Tanglewood, two fundraising campaigns, and a governance restructure.
“We are so excited to welcome Emily Fritz-Endres to our Albany Symphony family,” said Music Director David Alan Miller. “Emily is a rising star in the orchestral world, and we are very lucky to have her join us. Her great intelligence and broad experience will benefit our orchestra in countless ways in the years to come. She is such a dynamic, creative thinker, and an extraordinarily kind, thoughtful individual. I know that our brilliant Albany Symphony musicians and I will have a wonderful time working with her to chart the future of our great organization, especially as we head toward our 100th anniversary in 2030. It is a great tribute to our community, board of directors and musicians that we are able to attract an executive director of Emily’s quality.”
“We are thrilled and excited to welcome Emily Fritz-Endres to the Albany Symphony family and look forward to working with her to further our mission of artistic excellence, new music, diversity initiatives, and educational outreach and to reinforce our stature as a cultural gem of the Capital Region. We are confident that, through her leadership, the Albany Symphony will remain at the forefront of the national artistic landscape to enrich our cherished arts community in New York State and beyond,” said Paula Oakes, a violinist and chair of the orchestra committee.
Emily will take the helm as executive director beginning in August 2024 and continue the work that David Hyslop, Albany Symphony’s interim executive director, began in January 2024. The board of directors is deeply thankful to Hyslop for his invaluable service.
“I am honored to lead the Albany Symphony, an adventurous, future-looking orchestra devoted to championing the music of our time. I am grateful to my predecessor, Anna Kuwabara, a leader I admire for her talents in building enduring community partnerships and her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As the organization nears its centennial, I am thrilled to work with the wildly creative David Alan Miller, and the talented orchestra, board, and staff as we expand how our music celebrates, educates, and transforms the people of the Capital Region and beyond,” said Emily Fritz-Endres
Emily earned her MBA from Columbia Business School in New York and her BA from Carleton College in Minnesota. When not in music venues, she loves playing clarinet, being in nature, and mentoring queer youth.
