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New Symphony Director Finds Welcoming Overwhelming
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Friday, March 16, 2018
 

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Derek Dean’s name wasn’t on the first list of 40 choices to succeed Jenny Krueger as executive director of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony.

But that didn’t matter as the symphony’s board members began reading through six pages of accolades regarding the man who was chief operating officer at the San Francisco Symphony.

“We thought, ‘Maybe we have something here,’ ” recounted board president Sue Monson, as the symphony board threw a welcoming party for its new executive director this week. “We read even more about what he’s done and we knew, ‘We definitely have something here.’ ”

The reason Dean was not on the list, he recounted, was simple: He’d said he wasn’t interested when someone called from the Sun Valley Summer Symphony’s search committee.

“Then someone pulled me aside and said, ‘You should rethink this. You have no idea the vibrancy, the diversity and the quality of this symphony and the community.’ ”

While the glowing reports of the symphony caused him to have second thoughts, it was the friendliness of the community that sealed the deal.

“Five minutes into my visit I was walking down the street when someone said, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ ” he recalled. “I thought: Who is that? Is it someone from the search committee? No one does that in San Francisco!”

“Everybody is so nice here—it’s almost bizarre,” he added.

Dean, who grew up in Los Alamos, N.M., the son of parents who worked at the National Laboratory,  has settled into his new office across from Pioneer Montessori School where he can watch his 7- and 4-year-old sons learn to sled.

During his tenure at the San Francisco Symphony, Dean spearheaded new audience development initiatives and invested in signature artistic projects. He also served as acting executive director twice.

Donna Beaux reveled in the high spirits emanating from the welcome party as she served up wine alongside Susan Bilkey.

“It’s so overwhelming that this happens in such a small community,” she said.

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