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La Jolla Music Society names Ted DeDee as CEO, a month before its new $80 million arts center opens

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The La Jolla Music Society has appointed veteran arts administrator Ted DeDee as its new CEO and president, effective April 1, only four days before the opening of the nonprofit arts organization’s $80 million Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center.

DeDee’s appointment, which will officially be announced later today, comes after he was unanimously selected Thursday night by the society’s 34-member board of directors. He was one of five finalists interviewed by the board, which received 91 applications from across the nation. He has signed a three-year contract, with options to renew. His salary has not been disclosed.

Significantly, DeDee was the only contender whose resumé includes having led seven performing arts centers across the United States. A partial list of those centers includes the Eastman School of Music’s Eastman Theatre in Rochester, N. Y.; the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, both in Nashville; and Wisconsin’s $205 million Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, where Dedee was CEO and president from 2012 to 2018.

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“Ted stood out very much through his proven capacity, over the past 45 years, as both as a visionary impresario and as a business leader,” said Katherine Chapin, the board chair of the society, now in its 50th year.

“He’s demonstrated that he has a significant history of time and energy operating performing arts centers — which he has done seven times — and also in donor cultivation and stewardship as a seasoned executive,” she said. “I was particularly impressed that he has the stature, presence and personality to represent La Jolla Music Society to the city, the region and the nation.

“Ted brings the experience and facility to ensure we will be able to operate our new $80 million performing arts center profitably,” Chapin added, and also “draw new audiences and help us grow the depth and breadth of what La Jolla Music Society is known for — and yet to be known for.”

DeDee retired last May from leading the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, where he currently resides. He will be in San Diego this weekend to meet with society board members and plans to move here in March. DeDee will also be on hand for the April 5-7 grand opening weekend of the new performing arts center, which is informally known as The Conrad. The opening weekend’s lineup will feature, among others, Seal, Hilary Hahn, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Jake Shimabukuro, Inon Barnatan — the new music director of the society’s annual SummerFest — and former SummerFest music directors Cho-Liang Lin, Wu Han, David Finckel and Heiichiro Ohyama.

“The La Jolla Music Society did indeed lure me out of retirement!” DeDee said Friday morning by phone from his home in Madison. “I’ve opened a few new arts centers in my career and that always excites me. It’s been one of my hallmarks as a career professional, especially because I enjoy watching the growth of the arts that comes about with the opening of a brand new building.

“That the society has been in business as long as it has is impressive enough to make me want to work with the organization. To find donors to help support a brand new building — as they have done — is a major undertaking, and I am duly impressed with everything that’s taken place.”

DeDee, who declined to state his age, will be the society’s third CEO and president since January of 2018, when Kristin Lancino abruptly resigned, barely two years after coming on board in La Jolla.

Lancino’s replacement, Florida Grand Opera Executive Director Susan T. Danis, was announced last July. However, last September — before Danis had even started her new job here — the society announced she would instead return to her position in Miami with Florida Grand Opera, where a disgruntled former employee had falsely defamed her.

“Quite frankly, (what happened) doesn’t concern me much,” DeDee said. “I know there have been a lot of hopes and dreams behind getting The Conrad opened. And I know the board felt they needed to make sure they chose the right person, and I feel very qualified.”

Board chair Chapin readily agreed.

“Ted is tailor-made for us, especially at the juncture we are now at, because he has an ability to lead us at a time of both risk and growth,” she said.

“We are opening a brand new performing arts center, which certainly has its potential pitfalls, and we feel extremely confident in Ted’s hands. When we spoke to him (Thursday night by phone), I said: ‘Ted, I bet there is nothing that could potentially surprise you about our center opening in April that you haven’t dealt with before.’…

“I very much commend our board of directors for refusing to compromise on our standards and who we were looking for as a leader,” Chapin said. “We were willing to wait until we found the right person who could not only lead into exciting future, with our center’s opening, but also lead us into the long-term future. We’re very lucky to get Ted.”

Twitter @georgevarga

george.varga@sduniontribune.com

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