(New York, March 28, 2011)—Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced today the appointment of Limor Tomer as the Museum's General Manager of Concerts & Lectures, effective May 2. She currently holds the dual positions of Executive Producer for Music at radio station Classical 105.9 FM WQXR and Adjunct Curator for Performing Arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. At the Metropolitan Museum, Ms. Tomer—whose prolific career in the arts encompasses more than 20 years of experience as producer, programmer, administrator, and musician—will head the renowned Concerts & Lectures series, which is in its 57th season and presents more than 200 events to the public each year.
"I am very pleased that Limor Tomer has agreed to take on the immense, exciting challenge of leading our Concerts & Lectures activities," Mr. Campbell stated. "Her approach is fresh, creative, and collaborative, embracing the full range and potential of music, performance, and conversation. Given the global nature of the Met's collections and exhibitions, which cover every period from ancient to modern, there are countless opportunities for performance to be integrated here in organic and meaningful ways—in the concert hall, in gallery spaces, and beyond our walls through digital means to an international audience. Limor and her staff will work closely with our education chairman Peggy Fogelman, and I look forward to collaborating with them and with our curators to find ways for our audiences to engage more fully with the collections and exhibitions, which represent such a large part of our collective human inheritance."
Limor Tomer commented: "The Met is a global, agenda-setting institution. It is a huge honor for me to join the staff at this critical moment. I look forward to working collaboratively with the Museum's curators and educators—as well as with other institutions around the City and the world—to engage diverse audiences and to further the cultural dialogue through performances and talks at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium and elsewhere in the Museum, as well as embracing the digital space as a venue for performance and conversation."
As Executive Producer for Music since 2006, Limor Tomer has charted many new courses and fulfilled a broad swath of responsibilities at WNYC and WQXR radio. Initially, at WNYC, she oversaw the music department, where she produced such award-winning programs as 24:33, a John Cage celebration; A Beautiful Symphony of Brotherhood, about the musical life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; The Tristan Mysteries; and Berlin Without Walls. She also spearheaded and oversaw the transition to fully digital music broadcasting and the launch of Q2, an all-digital radio stream devoted to the music of living composers. She crafted a successful ongoing collaboration with NPR and produced dozens of live local and national broadcasts from venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Le Poisson Rouge. During and after the acquisition of WQXR by WNYC (now operated jointly as New York Public Radio), she served on the transition team, creating strategic cultural collaborations with local, national, and international institutions, launching new shows and helping to develop the station's mission, vision, and artistic and curatorial goals.
As Adjunct Curator for Performing Arts at the Whitney Museum since 2005, Ms. Tomer created a performing arts department that presented innovative dance, theater, music, and inter-media performances in various museum spaces including the gallery floors, film and video gallery, and the Sculpture Court. She also presented large-scale performance marathons and collaborated with other curators on integrated exhibition/performance hybrids. Among her curatorial credits at the Whitney are: Christian Marclay: Festival, Off the Wall, Steve Reich @ The Whitney, and Meredith Monk Marathon.
Born in Israel, Limor Tomer moved to the United States at age 13. She earned both her B.A. and M.A. from The Juilliard School and studied for her doctorate in aesthetics at New York University. For ten years, she performed professionally as a classical pianist in solo and orchestral performances throughout the U.S. and Europe. After meeting impresario Harvey Lichtenstein, the visionary president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, she went to work for him, first creating the position of audience services manager; then conceptualizing and launching the BAMcafé; and overseeing the development and launch of the BAM Rose Cinemas. After Mr. Lichtenstein retired, she became a freelance producer and curator for BAM, Exit Art, Symphony Space, Lincoln Center, Joe's Pub, the Whitney Museum, and other New York City organizations until she took on her current positions. Her credits from that time include Maghreb-Mashreq: East West Alchemy, and Brazil Beyond Bossa for Lincoln Center Festival; Wall-to-Wall Joni Mitchell for Symphony Space; Over Down Under and Too Cool for Shul for BAMcafé; and Opera Goes Public and The Turntable Sessions for Joe's Pub.
Now joining the Metropolitan Museum as General Manager of Concerts & Lectures, she will head the oldest continually offered major concert series in New York, with a tradition of representing both artists at the height of their careers and emerging artists, as well as its lecture series featuring events on art history, exhibitions, and related subjects hosted by the Museum's curators and renowned cultural figures. The Concerts & Lectures Department, which is part of the Education Department, now presents more than 200 events per season, most of which take place in the Museum's 700-seat Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. Concerts are also performed in the galleries, including The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing, and at The Cloisters museum and gardens, the Museum's branch for medieval art in northern Manhattan.
In her new position at the Metropolitan Museum, she succeeds Hilde Limondjian, who served as General Manager from 1969 until last year.
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March 28, 2011