By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer

After a year without an executive director, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra has begun its 2007-2008 season under new leadership.

Janet Newcomb, former interim president and chief executive of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, was interviewed for the position last spring and became one of two final candidates for the position. The final vote by the orchestra’s search committee was unanimous.

“Six musicians participated in the search committee and there was a unanimous decision for Janet,” said Laura Deaton, the orchestra’s chief operating officer.

Deaton has been credited for helping to guide the orchestra through its toughest year ever, one in which the fear that the orchestra would fold almost became a reality.

The orchestra’s former executive director, Sandy Ferencz, resigned in August 2006. The CSO wrapped up its last fiscal year with an operating deficit of $179,069 but is now debt-free after an appeal for contributions and sponsorships from area businesses.

The CSO’s turnaround is one of the things that impressed Newcomb, who said she can tell how healthy a city is by the number of artists living in it.

“What was exciting to me about the Charleston Symphony is that they really took the bull by the horns and went through a process and had a lot of good come out of that,” Newcomb said.

“You always want to go where a community wants your organization to thrive. Just having a good symphony orchestra is not the only part of it. You have to have a community that wants to support it.”

Newcomb is not unfamiliar with Charleston, having lived in Beaufort, Columbia and Greenville, where she worked with the local arts council.

Newcomb’s husband, Wallace “Moe” Newcomb, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, began serving as a pilot with a National Guard unit that brought him to Beaufort in the mid-1980s. While in Beaufort, Janet Newcomb served as executive director of the Beaufort Arts Council. She later took at job as director of grants for the S.C. Arts Commission in Columbia.

She moved back to her hometown of Corning, N.Y., to become director of the Corning Arts Council. Newcomb has been in her position with the Rochester Philharmonic for 1 1/2 years.

“I really love the people in South Carolina,” Newcomb said. “We always just fit right in.”

John Pattison, a Rochester Philharmonic board member and area attorney, was on the search committee that hired Newcomb in New York. At the time, the orchestra had just developed a long-term strategic plan.

“She came in to drive that plan,” Pattison said. “We just felt that Jan was a breath of fresh air. She’s very easy to be with and she’s very easy to talk to, which is great when you have to ask people for money. Not only is she good at talking to people, but she is also an excellent manager because people like her, they relate to her.

We are really sorry we are going to lose her, but we understand her family is down there. She’s the right person at the right time for you. Rochester’s loss is going to be Charleston’s gain.”

Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@setcommedia.com.

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