Royce Saltzman, co-founder and executive director of the Oregon Bach Festival, will step down after 36 years in the position and assume a more active role in fundraising, University President Dave Frohnmayer announced Wednesday.
Saltzman said he felt at this point in his life he could better serve the festival by ensuring its legacy through fundraising efforts.
“Securing the financial base for the future is very important,” he said.
The University and the Festival Board will form a hiring committee to handle an international search for Saltzman’s replacement, said George Evano, the director of communications of the Bach Festival.
He said the search process will begin after the 2006 festival ends. The committee hopes to have a list of finalists by January 2007. Saltzman co-founded the Oregon Bach Festival with Helmuth Rilling in 1970, and the event has since grown into an internationally recognized event drawing crowds of more than 30,000 visitors.
Saltzman will continue to direct the festival through this summer’s event; after its conclusion he will focus on building the organization’s endowment, Frohnmayer said. The $10 million endowment goal is part of Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives, a fundraising effort formed in 2001 with the goal of earning $600 million for the University.
So far the campaign has raised $415 million. Frohnmayer said the capital campaign for the Oregon Bach Festival is “one of the highest priorities for Campaign Oregon.” The endowment campaign has already had success and is nearing the halfway mark, Saltzman said.
Frohnmayer said that Saltzman’s departure is bittersweet for the University, noting that it was grateful for everything he had accomplished during his 36-year tenure, but that the annual event would miss Saltzman’s leadership.
Saltzman said the festival has grown beyond expectations.
“Never did we expect that there would be a festival like this,” he said. “It’s hard to believe that the festival is what it is today given where we started.”
Rilling will maintain his position as artistic director and conductor of the festival, Saltzman said.
Frohnmayer said the festival’s international reputation will help the committee bring in the best candidate possible for Saltzman’s replacement.
The decision to announce his role change just one month before the festival begins was intentional, Saltzman said. He said he wanted the opportunity to speak with the orchestra and artists personally before the event, rather than have them hear about it indirectly after it was over.
Evano agreed with Saltzman’s decision.
“It was just a matter of timing, and the fact that this will unfold over a two year period, there’s comfort in,” Evano said. “It seems like the right plan.”
Evano said it was hard to say how the technical nature of the festival will be affected in the future, but the musical aspects would remain similar.
“The method we use to deliver the product may change, but the integrity, the level and the artistry remain the same,” he said.
Saltzman said that past achievements offer a positive outlook for the future of the annual event.
“I think there are really exciting days ahead for the festival,” he said.
He emphasized that much of the success it has seen since its inception in 1970 is owed to the relationship with the University and the outstanding support from the Eugene/Springfield community.
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