Lincoln Center's Janice C. Price Named to Head Regional Performing Arts Center
January 3, 2002
Midge Rendell, Vice Chair of the RPAC Board of Directors, welcomes Janice Price, RPAC's new President and CEO.
The selection of Price caps a six-month national search by RPAC's Board of Directors for a permanent President and CEO, and coincides with the announcement that RPAC Interim President Leslie Anne Miller has been named Co-Chair of the RPAC Board.
"We are truly delighted to announce the appointment of Janice Price, who is a woman of extraordinary talent and experience," said Rouse. "The chance to run RPAC, and particularly the opportunity to lead the nation's newest and finest arts center, attracted a remarkable number of outstanding candidates for this position, and we believe that the selection of Janice Price will position Philadelphia to become a premier venue for performing artists from all over the world.
"At the same time, we also are thrilled to announce that Leslie Anne Miller, whose service as Interim President was largely responsible for achieving the opening of The Kimmel Center, has accepted the appointment as Co-Chair of the RPAC Board," Rouse said. "Her service has been invaluable, and in her expanded role at the Board level, Leslie will continue to lead the organization as we undertake the challenge of making RPAC the best arts center in the nation."
Janice Price comes to RPAC following a four-year tenure at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the world's largest performing arts center that is responsible for almost 400 performances a year through its renowned Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Mostly Mozart, Midsummer Night Swing, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors and Lincoln Center's American Songbook series, among others, as well as its Live from Lincoln Center national telecasts. The Lincoln Center's 12 resident companies include the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, the New York Philharmonic, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the School of American Ballet, the Lincoln Center Theater, the Juilliard School, the New York City Opera, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
At Lincoln Center, Price served as Vice President for Marketing and Communications from 1997 to 2000; Vice President for Consumer Markets and New Technologies from 2000 to September 2001; and since October, as Interim Executive Director. In that capacity, she and Lincoln Center Chairman Beverly Sills worked together to manage the Center's eight-building campus on the Upper West Side, oversaw an annual budget of $72 million, served as a member of the Center's Senior Management Committee, and directed the Center's 200-member full-time staff.
"We are a very closely-knit group at the senior management level of Lincoln Center, almost like family, and so it is very sad to say goodbye to a good friend like Janice Price," said Sills. "We have worked very closely over the years, and I will miss her advice and counsel.
"But the chance to run the spectacular new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is a golden opportunity for Janice, and I have no doubt that she will have a tremendous positive impact on RPAC's future," Sills said. "We wish Janice continued success, and we at Lincoln Center welcome The Kimmel Center to the family of premier performing art centers throughout the world."
Lincoln Center President Emeritus Nathan Leventhal said, "Janice Price is an extraordinarily wise and talented performing arts professional with enormous energy, creativity and management expertise. She did a superb job at Lincoln Center in an ever-expanding role and, with her at the helm, I know that The Kimmel Center will be a huge success."
As President and CEO of RPAC in Philadelphia, Ms. Price will lead an organization that is governed by a 40-member Board of Directors and is home to eight resident companies, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Pennsylvania Ballet, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, PHILADANCO, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Peter Nero and the Philly Pops®, Opera Company of Philadelphia, and American Theater Arts for Youth. RPAC includes the spectacular new $265 million Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts - the centerpiece of Philadelphia's renaissance as a premier arts and cultural destination - and its beloved and historic neighbor, the Academy of Music, which is soon to undergo a $10 million renovation designed to raise the Academy roof to permit the staging of Broadway shows.
The three venues - two separate theaters, Verizon Hall and the Perelman Theater in The Kimmel Center, plus the Academy stage - will combine to help RPAC achieve its mission of invigorating the growth and development of its resident companies and performing arts throughout the greater Philadelphia region; fostering a thriving education and community outreach program in the performing arts; attracting world-class artists to perform in Philadelphia; stimulating the local economy; and spearheading the continuing development of a world-class cultural district in this region.
"The Kimmel Center is gaining attention the world over as a tremendous new venue, but it is just as importantly a community center that was built with the help of our taxpayers and welcomes all segments of our community," said Mayor John F. Street. "Janice Price has extensive experience through her work at the Lincoln Center and at other centers in both the United States and Canada, and her appointment bodes well for RPAC's future. She follows two capable predecessors in Leslie Anne Miller and (former RPAC President) Stephanie Naidoff, and under the outstanding leadership of Bill Rouse, I believe that RPAC is putting together a great management team to operate The Kimmel Center and the Academy. On behalf of all Philadelphians, I welcome Ms. Price to the city and wish her great success."
Before her tenure at Lincoln Center, Price served as Senior Manager of the Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts (formerly the O'Keefe Centre), the Toronto-based home of The National Ballet of Canada and the Canadian Opera Company. Before that, she served briefly as Vice President of Sales for Livent, Inc., the first publicly-traded theater company. From 1992 to 1996, Price was Director of Marketing and Special Projects for the Stratford Festival in Canada. From 1989 to 1992, she was Director of Marketing and Communications for the Corporation of Massey Hall, the historic 100-year-old concert hall, and the later Roy Thomson Hall, the 2,800-seat concert hall that serves as the home of the Toronto Symphony.
Price's career also includes extensive television experience. From 1986 to 1989, she served as President of Flying Unicorn Productions, a Canadian-based company engaged in the production and distribution of domestic and international programming. From 1984 to 1986, Price was Manager of Sales for TVOntario, focusing on the distribution of educational sales programs. She began her career at CFO-TV Limited, where she served as both Program and Promotions Manager and Talent Coordinator from 1978 to 1984.
A lifelong devotee of the arts, Price is a past Vice President of the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America, and a past board member of both Factory Theatre and the Toronto Dance Theatre in Toronto. She also is a founding member of The Social Marketing Institute, which is devoted to the research writing and studies of best practices in management and marketing for non-profits; and the Advertising Women of New York. In addition, Price served as a board member of United Way of Greater Toronto and the Casey House Foundation of Toronto, a hospice and in-home care facility for people living with AIDS/HIV.
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