Chris Lorway Named Executive Director of Stanford Live & Bing Concert Hall

Stanford University and the Stanford Live Advisory Council today announced the appointment of Chris Lorway as Executive Director of Stanford Live and Bing Concert Hall. He will assume the position in late summer, as the fifth season of Stanford Live begins.

Chris Lorway was the founding artistic director of Toronto's internationally recognized Luminato Festival. He currently holds the position of Director, Programming & Marketing, of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall - home of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto International Film Festival - where he curates and presents an annual season of approximately 150 performances. Previously, he was the Executive Director of Soundstreams, a Toronto-based music presenter that commissions, develops, and showcases the work of contemporary composers.

The search was conducted on an international basis, and sought an innovative performing arts leader with a broad and diverse presenting background. Leslie Hume, Co-Chair of the Stanford Live Advisory Council, and Stephen M. Sano, Chair of the Department of Music of Stanford University, served as Co-Chairs of the Search Committee. The Committee included Peter Bing, John Goldman, Fred Harman, Srinija Srinivasan (all members of the Stanford Live Advisory Council); and Kathleen Quinn, Assistant Vice President for Development in Stanford's Office of Development and Associate Dean for External Relations in the School of Humanities & Sciences, and Matthew Tiews, Associate Dean for the Advancement of the Arts, School of Humanities & Sciences.

"As Stanford Live approaches its fifth season, we sought leadership with a long-term vision," commented Leslie Hume. "A depth and breadth of experience in performing arts presentation, an excitement about exploring an expansive diversity of music, and a creative approach to engaging new audiences were key criteria. We also sought a leader with deep intellectual curiosity who would find new ways to connect live performance to the academic resources of the university. Given the social, cultural and geographic setting of Stanford Live and Bing Concert Hall at the heart of Silicon Valley, we also knew that the next director needed to be at home in an innovative university environment and committed to strengthening connections between the campus and the broader community."

Stanford University, 425 Santa Teresa Street MC 2250, Stanford, CA 94305-2250 Tel 650.723.2551 live.stanford.edu

Chris Lorway commented, "I'm thrilled to be joining the team at Stanford Live and to have the opportunity to animate Bing Concert Hall, and to work in other spaces across the Stanford campus, in collaboration with the world's foremost artists. I'm incredibly excited to have access to the types of resources that only a university environment can provide and look forward to working closely with faculty, students, the Advisory Council and other arts champions on and off campus to make this one of California's most exciting cultural hubs. I want to thank the Search Committee for designing a rigorous process that gave me a comprehensive understanding of the opportunity and introduced me to many of my future colleagues and collaborators."

Chris Lorway is the Director, Programming & Marketing, at The Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall, in Toronto. Prior to this he was the Executive Director of Soundstreams, a Toronto-based music presenter that commissions, develops, and showcases the work of contemporary composers.

Lorway also spent five seasons as the founding Artistic Director of the Luminato Festival in Toronto where he shaped and implemented the festival's artistic vision and program. Before Luminato, he was a Senior Consultant at AEA Consulting in New York, specializing in financial modeling and capital project planning where clients included the Edinburgh Festivals, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the West Kowloon Cultural District. Lorway has also worked on a number of major international festivals including the Lincoln Center Festival, and The New Yorker Festival, and was part of the founding team of the Celtic Colours International Festival in Nova Scotia.

Lorway holds a MA in Arts Administration from Columbia University, and a BMusEd from Western University. He has guest lectured at the University of Toronto, Columbia University, NYU, OCAD, and has been a lecturer on cultural leadership for the Clore Duffield Leadership Programme in the UK and the Advanced Cultural Leadership Programme in Hong Kong.

Photo Credit: Trevor Haldenby