491: Lois Robinson on disaster recovery - a podcast by Jason Heath
from 2018-06-07T11:00
When Mitch Moehring, one of our producers for the show, recommended that I get in touch with Lois Robinson for an interview, I had a weird sense of deja vu…. I knew that name from somewhere in my past.
After reading a few emails, I realized that Lois and I go way back. In fact, she was the Executive Director of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago back the I was a member in the late 1990s. I even think that we played a gig or two in the Elgin Symphony as well!
In addition to being a bass player, Lois has a remarkable talent: bringing orchestras back from the brink of disaster.
Lois was hired as Executive Director of the Shreveport Symphony following a crippling two year strike by the orchestra. The financial situation of this orchestra was complicated by the loss of the orchestra’s tax exempt status!
After coping with the immediate crises, Lois and her team successfully restructured Fundraising and Marketing activities and increased annual revenue by approximately 50% overall from 2011 to 2015. They’ve achieved an operating surplus for the last two fiscal years, and negotiated the first three year CBA with the musicians since the 1990’s.
Learn about the remarkable transformation that Lois spearheaded fro the Shreveport Symphony, her experiences working at the Louisiana Philharmonic right after Hurricane Katrina, her background as a bassist and a lawyer, and much more in this great conversation!
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Contrabass Conversations production team:
- Jason Heath, host
- Michael Cooper and Steve Hinchey, audio editing
- Mitch Moehring, audio engineer
- Trevor Jones, publication and promotion
- Krista Kopper, cataloging and archiving
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