Chris Lorway named executive director of Stanford Live and Bing Concert Hall

Chris Lorway today was named the new executive director of Stanford Live and Bing Concert Hall.

Stanford University and the Stanford Live Advisory Council, which made the announcement, stated that Lorway will assume the position in late summer, as the fifth season of Stanford Live begins.

Chris Lorway, founding artistic director of Toronto’s Luminato Festival, will assume the executive directorship of Stanford Live and Bing Concert Hall in late summer. (Image credit: Trevor Haldenby)

Lorway was the founding artistic director of Toronto’s internationally recognized Luminato Festival. He currently holds the position of director, programming and marketing, of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall – home of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto International Film Festival. There he curates and presents an annual season of about 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.

Lorway said, “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.”

Lorway said he is “incredibly excited” to have access to the types of resources that Stanford offers and looks 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.

Before Luminato, Lorway was a senior consultant at AEA Consulting in New York, specializing in financial modeling and capital project planning; clients included the Edinburgh Festivals, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the West Kowloon Cultural District.

He also has 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.

A native of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Lorway holds a master’s degree in arts administration from Columbia University and a bachelor’s of music education from Western University, Canada. He has guest lectured at the University of Toronto and Columbia University, among others, 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.

Lorway noted, “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.”

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 at Stanford, served as co-chairs of the search committee.

Hume said: “As Stanford Live approached its fifth season, we sought leadership with a long-term vision. A compelling 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.

“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. We found all of those qualities in Chris Lorway, and look forward to welcoming him to the uniquely creative setting of Stanford University.”

Others on the committee included Peter Bing, John Goldman, Fred Harman and Srinija Srinivasan (all members of the Stanford Live Advisory Council); Kathleen Quinn, assistant vice president for development in Stanford’s Office of Development and associate dean for external relations in the School of Humanities and Sciences; and Matthew Tiews, associate dean for the advancement of the arts, School of Humanities and Sciences.

Stanford Live

Stanford Live presents a wide range of the finest performances from around the world. The organization recently announced its 2016-17 season, its fifth at Bing Concert Hall.

-30-