Marcy Miller hired as new executive director of Artist Series Concerts

Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota will start next season on a different note.

John Fischer announced in December that after 17 years as managing director,  he will retire at the close of the 2018-2019 season in June. After a nearly four-month search, the organization has chosen Marcy Miller as its new executive director.

“Marcy first impressed us with her grace, poise, intelligence and enthusiasm,” Artist Series Concerts Board President Jane Hunder said in an organization press release. “Combined with her extensive fundraising and strategic planning experience and her outstanding leadership abilities, she was the perfect choice to guide our organization forward into the coming years.”

According to the release, Miller has worked in the nonprofit sector in a variety of positions for the last 11 years. Most recently, she served as executive director of the William King Museum of Art in Abingdon, Va., where she got the museum through an economic recession, obtained major grants and gifts, boosted visitation and heightened the museum’s reputation locally. In her new role in Sarasota, Miller will be responsible for overseeing the administration, programs, policies and strategic planning of Artist Series Concerts, which will require coordinating fundraising, development and community relations campaigns.

“My husband and I chose to live in Sarasota for its rich array of cultural amenities and it hasn’t disappointed,” Miller said in the release. “I was attracted to this organization and particularly, to its revised mission to further encourage and promote young talent. I am honored to now be part of Artist Series Concerts and I look forward to supporting emerging young artists, further growing this fine institution, and of course to experiencing, producing and promoting more of the world-class music that has become its hallmark over the past 23 years.”

Miller has experience in the arts, too — even if it’s been a while. The release states that Miller is a singer who performed in school productions of “Guys and Dolls” and “Fiddler on the Roof” growing up. As a college student, she also sang with Yale University’s all-women’s a cappella group, the New Blue. She’s recently started taking voice lessons again.