Emily Fritz-Endres named Executive Director, looks to expand community outreach
ALBANY – Signaling a new change for the company, the Albany Symphony Orchestra (ASO) has announced Emily Fritz-Endres as its newly appointed executive director. With over a decade of experience in the industry, Fritz-Endres plans to apply her knowledge to the orchestra, a cultural landmark of the Capital Region.
“We are so excited to welcome Emily Fritz-Endres to our Albany Symphony family,” said Music Director David Alan Miller. “Emily is a rising star in the orchestral world, and we are very lucky to have her join us. Her great intelligence and broad experience will benefit our orchestra in countless ways in the years to come. She is such a dynamic, creative thinker and an extraordinarily kind, thoughtful individual.”
Fritz-Endres credits the board and Miller, whom she called her ‘partner in crime’ during this process of transition for the company. “He has been with the organization for a number of decades and is an unbelievable champion of what the orchestra can do, expanding our imaginations on what kind of music it can play and how it can serve the region,” she said. “I’m really excited to work with him because he’s so creative.”
“I know that our brilliant Albany Symphony musicians and I will have a wonderful time working with her to chart the future of our great organization, especially as we head toward our 100th anniversary in 2030,” said Miller. “It is a great tribute to our community, board of directors, and musicians that we are able to attract an executive director of Emily’s quality.”
Music and the qualities it can bring to people’s lives attracted Fritz-Endres from a young age. Her entry point into music began by playing the clarinet in middle school. “It was truly love at first sight, where I felt like music had this ability to convey ideas and bring people together in a way that was so incredibly compelling to me,” she said.
Through middle school, high school, and into college, she was guided by mentors who showed her the opportunities in the world of music beyond the solitary practice room where she struggled to fully thrive.
“That’s where I discovered arts administration and that I had some innate ability and talent for it; that I would be able to bring that vision to life of using music to bring people together and tell stories as an administrator,” she said.
Diving into the world of orchestras and music, Fritz-Endres worked for eight years at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Meanwhile, she earned her MBA at Columbia Business School to achieve an even higher level of ‘business rigor’ and knowledge that she could apply to her work, then made the leap from Boston to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
After her time in Atlanta, she viewed her career’s experiences as a ‘patchwork’, guiding her decision to take an even larger step forward into pursuing a role as an executive director.
“That is why I was so excited for the opportunity at the Albany Symphony when that job position opened up because it’s an orchestra that I admire so much and have come to care so deeply about in terms of its impact locally and its reputation in a far more reaching way,” said Fritz-Endres. “I’ve been so lucky for the stars to align for me to take on this post in Albany.”
One of ASO’s first creative endeavors that she will observe is their involvement in the 200th-anniversary celebration of the Erie Canal System. ASO will be a large part of this, commissioning pieces that tell the stories about the Erie Canal in ways that perhaps have not been heard before.
“It might be from an Indigenous, Black, or immigrant perspective. To be able to build out that narrative and build on the richness of what makes the Capital Region so great, that there is so much history and tradition to celebrate, and that that history and tradition only get better, greater, and more wonderful when we include more voices in it. I’m really excited to see how that comes to life,” said Fritz-Endres.
Reflecting on her experiences, whether in fundraising, governance, or artistic work, Fritz-Endres aims to understand how they fit and apply to the culture of ASO and the Capital Region.
“I don’t believe that there is any one-size-fits-all model, and it’s extremely important to make sure that you’re not only responding to the very specific needs of a place but that you are reflecting that place, and the people of that organization are representative of the full, broad diversity of a region,” she added.
She emphasized ASO’s work with community outreach programs in the Capital Region and their use of living composers, hoping to build on these pre-existing partnerships. Her goal is to work with the individuals and communities who live in the region, have vision, and have impact, allowing this to shape her vision for ASO going forward.
“One of the great things that music can do for our community is unlock potential, confidence, and creativity in new and inspiring ways,” she said, crediting her ‘exceptional’ mentors who helped her on her mission. “I now seek to pass that forward. From this position as the executive director, I seek to cultivate relationships with not only the musicians and the staff of the organization…but also to unlock potential throughout the community.”
A quick peek at ASO’s new executive director
- Emily Fritz-Endres has over a decade of experience in the orchestral industry.
- She previously worked for eight years at the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
- Fritz-Endres earned an MBA from Columbia Business School.
- She views her career as a ‘patchwork’ of experiences guiding her towards becoming an executive director.
- The Albany Symphony Orchestra will be celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2030.
- ASO will participate in the 200th-anniversary celebration of the Erie Canal System by commissioning new pieces.
- Fritz-Endres began her musical journey by playing the clarinet in middle school.
- She discovered her talent for arts administration during her college years.
- The ASO’s community outreach programs and use of living composers are areas Fritz-Endres aims to build upon.
- Fritz-Endres emphasized the importance of reflecting the full, broad diversity of the Capital Region in the ASO’s work.
