Karl E. Held, Tony Award-Nominated Broadway Producer, Passes Away at 63

Karl E. Held, a Tony Award-nominated Broadway producer whose wide-ranging career in the performing arts spanned more than four decades, died on June 23 in New York City. He was 63. The cause was a heart attack suffered shortly after attending a performance at Carnegie Hall.

A native of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Mr. Held split his time between New York City, Hollywood, and his beloved hometown. As both a performer and independent producer, he worked with some of the most renowned artists and institutions of our time. His impressive roster of collaborators included Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, the Spoleto Festivals (Charleston, SC, and Spoleto, Italy), Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Seiji Ozawa, John Williams, Frank Wildhorn, Yo-Yo Ma, Harry Belafonte, Betty Buckley, Elaine Stritch, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He also produced projects with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Princeton University, Princeton Theological Seminary, Gettysburg College, Westminster Choir College, and the American Boychoir School.

In 1990, Mr. Held joined Emmy Award-winning producer Roger Englander and Freddie Gershon of Music Theatre International to create an acclaimed video series capturing the conception and creation of Broadway shows with their original creators. The series featured conversations about musicals including George Gershwin’s works, Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins and Into the Woods, Kander and Ebb’s And the World Goes Round, She Loves Me, Starting Here, Starting Now, Forever Plaid, Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Les Misérables, and George Abbott’s The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees. Designed to educate and inspire new audiences, the series remains a testament to Karl’s commitment to theater education.

Mr. Held was a producer on the 2009 Broadway revival of Ragtime, which earned seven Tony Award nominations and nine Drama Desk Award nominations. Other New York theater credits included Into the Woods (1989) and White’s Lies (2010). At the time of his passing, he was active Producer on Kowalski, a new play about the relationship between Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando, which premiered Off-Broadway earlier this year (and isplanning a Broadway transfer).

Beyond the theater, Mr. Held’s producing work extended to major civic and cultural events, serving clients such as the governors of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, the Pennsylvania Governor's Arts and Humanities Councils, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Citizens for the Arts, the National Trust, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
His legacy in Gettysburg is particularly profound. Mr. Held led the 2005 renovation and gala reopening of the historic Majestic Theater, transforming the 1925 vaudeville house into a state-of-the-art performing arts facility. He also spearheaded the creation and launch of the Gettysburg Festival, a ten-day interdisciplinary arts festival, and founded The Ambassadors Series, an international concert and lecture series at Gettysburg College. In 2007, he produced the Governor’s Arts Awards at the Majestic at the invitation of then-Governor Ed Rendell.

“Gettysburg was not always the arts-rich community it is today,” said Chris Glatfelter, founding executive director of the Adams County Arts Council. “We owe a debt of gratitude to Karl — the trailblazer, the creative spark who helped ignite the transformation.”
Mr. Held’s dedication to the arts extended to recording projects, including the release of never-before-published material from Into the Woods, a four-CD box set of Sondheim’s works for the composer’s 80th birthday, and a 15-year archival project with composer Alice Parker, supported by the NEA. He also served on national councils for The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, including its 25th Anniversary Celebrations in 1996. From 2005 to 2010, he was instrumental in bringing the Leonard Bernstein Center for Artful Learning from the GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles to Gettysburg College.

A lifelong advocate for arts education, Mr. Held served as President and CEO of The American Boychoir School and was the founding executive director of the Princeton Center for Arts and Education. He also served as Senior Advisor to the President of Gettysburg College from 1997 to 2009, working with three administrations, and held leadership roles with the Adams County Arts Council, the National Trust for Historic Gettysburg, the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, and the Nassau Club in Princeton.

In later years, Karl embraced his love of hospitality as “Chef Karl” at local Gettysburg restaurants and with Savor Gettysburg Food Tours. He was known for hosting memorable dinner parties, delivering bear hugs, and filling every room with laughter.
“He had the most incredible and contagious laugh,” said longtime friend Karen Land. “You always knew when Karl was in the house.”

“Karl always helped me keep things in perspective,” added Aaron Grant, friend and general manager. “Whenever things got stressful, Karl would remind us to look at the big picture by asking: ‘What’s the view look like from thirty thousand feet?’ I know he’s looking down on us now, from at least thirty thousand feet.”

Karl Edward Held was born on June 7, 1962, in Gettysburg. He is survived by his brother, Michael Held of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Memorial services will be held in both New York City and Gettysburg. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Adams County Arts Council or any organization supporting the arts.