The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts announced on Wednesday, April 23, that Ryan Fleur has been promoted to president and CEO of an organization he has worked for since 2012.
Fleur, who has served as interim president since January after Matias Tarnopolsky’s departure, said he wants to ensure the enduring legacy of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts continues.
“I also want to aggressively make our venues available to both community groups and education groups that might not otherwise realize that these spaces are open to them,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I want every Philadelphia school student, K (kindergarten) through 12, to walk through our doors at least three times in their formative years, whether it’s coming to a Philadelphia Orchestra open rehearsal or a school concert or to our jazz for freedom program, which connects the history of jazz with the civil rights movement.”
Fleur had been serving as the Philadelphia Orchestra’s executive director since 2021. That year, the orchestra merged with the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, which it now calls home. This institution rebranded itself as Ensemble Arts Philly in 2024.
According to Fleur, patron counts for performances are slightly higher than they were before the pandemic began. He attributes this increase to single-ticket buyers rather than subscribers.
“One of the benefits of the merger is that we have a very large database through many genres to cross-market to,” he said. “We see people attending not just Broadway (shows), but they’ll come to an orchestra classical performance, and they’ll come to a jazz performance.”
Before coming to Philadelphia, Fleur, 53, served as president and CEO of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra from 2003 to 2012.
