ABout John
Senior Performing Arts and Media Executive with a passion for music and a proven record in leadership, growing institutions financially and artistically, fundraising and creating an international brand. Extensive experience collaborating with Board, executive, and artistic teams in crafting vision, creating strategy, and executing groundbreaking, award winning programs.
Media Production and Distribution
John has created media companies within orchestras, produced Emmy and Grammy award winning programming, and created brand-lifting distribution partnerships for institutions.
Negotiations
John has been the lead or an integral member in over 40 collective bargaining negotiations with musicians, vocal artists, stagehands and others. These were primarily with the locals of each union and on national media agreements. He is a firm believer in Interest Based Bargaining having been trained by Robert Mnookin, professor of Law at Harvard University.
Arts Administration
John has filled a varied array of positions as an administrator. These include President & CEO of Honens, General Manager of the San Francisco Symphony and Provost of the New World Symphony. His philosophy of management is one of full transparency and empowering staff to take the lead.
- Northern California Emmy for Executive Producer of “San Francisco Symphony at 100”
2004 Deems Taylor award for Executive Producer of the Keeping Score television programs “The Making of a Performance” and “Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony”
League of American Orchestras member
Board Member École Notre Dame des Victoires, San Francisco 2004 – 2007
Performing Arts Chair for Soiree des Arts International High School, San Francisco 2006 – 2007
Cultural Representative Mayor of San Francisco’s delegation to China Nov 2005
John Kieser most recently was the President & CEO of the Honens International Piano Competition. Previously John was the Director of Partnerships for IDAGIO GmbH and Executive Producer of Media for the New World Symphony. Before this he served as Executive Vice President and Provost for New World since 2015 overseeing Musician Advancement, Audience Experience, Research and Design, Community and Audience Engagement, and Digital Media. His work in developing concert formats live and online is designed to both attract new audiences and develop the skills of the Fellows.
Prior to this, John was with the San Francisco Symphony as General Manager where his responsibilities included strategic planning and management of presentations, facilities, capital improvements, touring, retail, union negotiations. While at SFS, he created SFS Media which produced the multi-media project Keeping Score, Grammy© award winning recordings and has won Emmy Awards for The San Francisco Symphony at 100 and Sweeney Todd. In 2014, he led the team that developed SoundBox, an experimental venue created to test concert formats, audience experience and to develop the skills of the orchestra members. Earlier, he was the Orchestra Manager for Canada’s National Arts Center in Ottawa and started his administrative career at the Toronto Symphony.
Bachelor of Music 1