BY KAREN BOSSICK

Derek L. Dean’s parents had to drag him, kicking and crying, up the steps to Mrs. Cooper’s house for his first piano lesson at age 4.

No one’s dragging him into his new role as executive director of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony.

Dean not only is excited to see the symphony in action this coming summer but he has already gotten a little help from the symphony’s former executive director Jennifer Teisinger in trailblazing a vegan path through the culinary landscape of Sun Valley.

Dean, chief operating officer at the San Francisco Symphony since June 2015, will become executive director of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony on March 1, 2018, according to Susan Monson, president of the symphony board.

During his tenure at the San Francisco Symphony, Dean spearheaded new audience development initiatives, invested in signature artistic projects and fostered collaboration across the organization.

He also served as acting executive director twice, overseeing all symphony operations during previous executive director Brent Assink’s six month sabbatical and during the search for the symphony’s current executive director Mark Hanson.

“Derek brings a wealth of experience in so many fields that are important to the symphony. He will be a tremendous asset,” said Monson.

Dean grew up in Los Alamos, N.M., the son of parents who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where workers provide scientific and engineering solutions to the nation’s most crucial security challenges.

While his musical debut did not have an auspicious start, he was taking piano lessons twice a week by the age of 5 and was playing his first Beethoven Piano Sonata at age 9.

“I’ve taken piano lessons my entire life, and I still do now,” said Dean, who counts the San Francisco Symphony’s principal keyboardist Robin Sutherland among his teachers. “I’m not a great pianist, but I have a lot of fun playing. Lately, I’ve been working on some Debussy and some Brahms.”

Dean was named to the Board of Governors of the San Francisco Symphony in 2011. He was then in the midst of a 20-year career with the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company where he led the firm’s global semiconductor practice for a decade.

He chaired the board’s Facilities Committee and participated in its Marketing and Executive committees.

When then-Executive Director Brent Assink asked if he would consider the joining the staff as Chief Operating Officer, it was an officer he couldn’t refuse.

“I jumped at the chance to learn more about the inner workings of the Symphony, to work much more closely with the musicians and the administrative staff and to try to have more of a positive impact on the organization than would ever be possible in a governance role on the Board,” he said.

“It gave me a rare opportunity to take everything I learned in my long career in business, including working across strategy, organization and operations, and apply it in an institution I cared deeply about.”

Dean has never played in an orchestra—he’s content playing solo piano and, occasionally, acoustic guitar, thank you.

But he likes to talk to musicians about what they enjoy and find moving in a particular piece and then listening to them perform it.

“I love rich and complex orchestrations where no matter how many times you’ve heard a particular piece you find something new each time. I also enjoy getting the ‘insider scoop’ on a performance, whether it’s a story about how the composer embedded some old folk tunes or told a particular story or did something no one else had ever done. I’m sure I could study music my entire life and never run out of things to learn,” he said.

Dean, a vegan for nearly 30 years, will bring with him his wife Katrina and sons ages 7 and 4. The boys just learned how to use Spotify and so they listen as a family to AC/DC and imagine dragons during breakfast.

“Although when they’re not paying attention, I’ll switch it back to Schumann,” Dean said.

Neither Dean nor his family has seen the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in action.

“But I have heard many of its musicians in various settings and I am very, very excited to experience my first live performances this coming summer,” he said. “We also love being outdoors and are excited for the opportunities to be able to walk, rather than drive for an hour, to take a family hike.”

Chances are Dean will also quickly find his way to the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley, having chaired the Board of directors of the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

A lifelong animal lover, Dean brought home his first puppy at age 4—the same year he took his first piano lesson. Since, he not only has raised a variety of cats and dogs but served as a volunteer dog walker at the SPCA.

As executive director of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Dean will lead the largest privately funded free-admission symphony in America in close collaboration with its Board of Directors and Music Director Alasdair Neale, former associate conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and music director of the Marin Symphony since 2001.

Neale, who has been music director of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony for 23 years, called Dean “an immensely intelligent, articulate and thoughtful man” with a genuine passion for music.

“His wide experience in a variety of roles at the highest level signals that he is uniquely qualified to lead our organization,” said Neale. “In the all-important area of strategic thinking he is exceptionally gifted and I look forward greatly to working with him as we plan the next exciting steps in the Sun Valley Summer Symphony’s evolution.”

The symphony, founded 33 years ago in 1985 has grown from 22 musicians to more than 114 players from North America’s top orchestras. It presents free concerts to more than 50,000 people annually,  showcasing such renowned guest artists as Joshua Bell, Kristin Chenoweth, Renee Fleming, Audra McDonald, Itzhak Perlman and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

“I have tremendous respect for the organization, its philosophy and values and the quality of its music making,” said Dean, who holds a B.A. in American studies from Carleton College and an MBA from the Stanford University School of Business. “And I am particularly happy that I will continue to interact with many musicians from the San Francisco Symphony, who make their home with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony during the annual free music festival.”