Susan Lape, executive director of the Lake Forest Symphony and a longtime Lake Forest resident, announced she will step down from her position on March 1. Lape has accepted a new role as executive director of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras.
Stewart Kerr, recently appointed as board president, will then guide the board in finding a new executive director. Kerr said he also will expand on the great work Lape did as executive director of the symphony for nearly five years, and search for a new Lake Forest venue for the organization to perform.
During Lape’s tenure, the board hired the Lake Forest Symphony’s music director, Vladimir Kulenovic, whose contract has just been extended for four years. The board also worked with Lape to create new educational and community offerings.
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“Leading the worldwide search to hire Vladimir and renewing his contract has been pretty transformative for the organization,” Lape said. “Vladimir is an exceptionally gifted musician and a phenomenal conductor. It’s been fun to see how well and passionately the musicians play for him and the quality of the guest artists he’s been able to bring.
“Working with the Lake Forest Symphony has been such a joy,” she continued. “I’ll miss the music making and the passion and dedication everyone has for their work.” But Lape, who has a graduate degree in musicology, said she is ready for a new challenge working with young people to help them shape their lives as “great musicians and leaders.”
Kerr, a 20-year resident of Lake Forest and retired banker with experience in guiding and raising funds for artistic organizations, came on board just before Lape announced her plans to accept a new position. He also serves as the executive director of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce.
“Susie worked to enhance our visibility and keep and grow the connections to Lake Forest and the people on the North Shore, the original patrons of the symphony,” Kerr said.
She’s done that by helping establish the new salon series held at the Gorton Community Center in Lake Forest, which features an intimate setting with individual musicians performing and meeting and greeting the symphony’s patrons.
The symphony performs its major concerts at the College of Lake County in Grayslake. Kerr said the board will embrace the challenge “right away of trying to figure a way get back into Lake Forest,” where the symphony started performing nearly 60 years ago. “I’ll be exploring that over the next couple of years — and also building the audience,” he said.
“I believe strongly in exposing young people to this sort of music. We’ll be looking for more ways to do that,” he said.
The symphony already reaches out to students and the community by bringing free concerts to elementary schools throughout Lake County and performing string quartets for adults with dementia.
Lape has served as the symphony’s executive director since September 2012 and was named executive director of the year by the Illinois Council of Orchestras in 2014. She and the symphony, along with WFMT radio, produced an audio documentary called “The Search” that detailed their worldwide search for a new music director.
Robert Kalter and William English founded the Lake Forest Symphony in 1957 as a chamber orchestra of volunteer musicians, according to the symphony’s website. In 1988, with more than 60 performers, the group became professional.
“We’re going into our 60th year and we’ve got some pretty ambitious plans for it,” Kerr said.