Dr. Ayden Adler
Dr. Ayden Adler
Assistant Professor of Arts AdministrationArts and CommunicationBiography
Dr. Ayden Adler serves as Assistant Professor of Arts Administration at UHD, where she also teaches in the MA in Nonprofit Management program and the MA in Strategic Communications program. Dr. Adler's vision is to sustain the arts through robust inclusivity and diversity, superlative artistry and leadership, and innovative approaches to audience engagement and retention. Her academic research focuses on the history of arts and culture institutions in the United States from the Gilded Age to the present. Her current book project, Orchestrating Whiteness: Serge Koussevitzky, Arthur Fiedler, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under contract with the University of Illinois Press, addresses the historical roots of systemic racism in classical music in the United States.
Previously, Dr. Adler served as Dean of the Conservatory at Michael Tilson Thomas' New World Symphony, as Dean of the School of Music at DePauw University, and as Executive Director of the world-renowned Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She also held senior-level management positions at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Dr. Adler began her career as a performing artist and played the French Horn in the Jerusalem Symphony in Israel, and for 10 years, as a tenured member for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in New York. She has recorded for the Harmonia Mundi label and is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Grammy Awards).
Currently, Dr. Adler is a Chief Executive Global Fellow of National Arts Strategies and a Dean's Inclusive Teaching Fellow of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at UHD. She is also a Fellow of the Center for Critical Race Studies at UHD. She sits on the Academic Leadership and Administration Committee for the College Music Society, the Board Development Committee for the Association of Arts Administration Educators, and on the boards of the Chumir Foundation and the Star Spangled Music Foundation. As founder and principal of Adler Executive Strategies, Dr. Adler helps organizations in the nonprofit sector, predominantly in the arts and higher education, reach their mission objectives by providing executive support and coaching, as well as expertise in strategic planning and execution, project development, resource acquisition, assessment, and accreditation. Dr. Adler regularly gives presentations at national and international arts and culture forums that address issues of civic and economic relevance, power and privilege, entrepreneurship, leadership, and new technologies.
Degrees Earned
Ph.D., Musicology, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester
D.M.A. (Doctorate of Musical Arts), Performance and Literature (Horn and Natural Horn) with Honors, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester
M.A., Musicology, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester
M.M., French Horn, The Juilliard School
A.B., Princeton University, Comparative Religion with a Certificate in Music
Additional Training and Certifications:
American Council On Education, Washington, DC
- National Women's Leadership Forum
Harvard Business School, Boston, MA
- Chief Executive Program: "The New Nature of Relevance" (full fellowship recipient)
International Coaching Federation
- ACC level certification
National Arts Strategies
- Chief Executive Program
OK Speak Up©
- Coaching in Racial Equity
Pew Center For Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia, PA
- Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative
Sundance Institute, Sundance, UT
- The Summit at Sundance: "Nonprofit Governance" (full fellowship recipient)
University Of Michigan Ross School Of Business, Ann Arbor, MI
- "Leadership and Competition: Creating Market Share" (full fellowship recipient)
- "Leadership and Convergence: Navigating Radical Change" (full fellowship recipient)
University Of Texas Rgk Center For Philanthropy And Community Service, Austin, TX
- "Sustainability in the Cultural Sector" (full fellowship recipient)
Courses Taught
Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts:
- ART/DRA/MUS/HUM 3325 "Introduction to Arts Administration"
- ART/DRA/MUS/HUM 3334 "Arts Administration II: Leadership and Programming"
- ART/DRA/MUS/HUM 3327 "Arts Administration III: Marketing and Fundraising"
MA in Nonprofit Management and MA in Strategic Communications:
- HUM 6301 "Principles of Nonprofit Marketing"
Experience Qualifications
Selected Honors, Grants, and Awards
University Of Houston-Downtown, Center for Teaching and Learning, Online Course Development Initiative (OCDI) Grant Recipient
University Of Houston-Downtown, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dean's Inclusive Teaching Fellow
Indiana University, Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), Research Affiliate
Paul R. Judy Center For Innovation And Research, Research Grant
University Of Houston-Downtown, Organized Research and Creative Activities Grant
Depauw University, John and Janice Fisher Fellowship ($90,000.00)
Depauw University, J. William and Dorothy A. Asher Fund Grant in the Social Sciences
Depauw University, J. William Asher and Anne F. Harris Endowed Fund Grant in the Humanities
Society For American Music, Wiley Housewright Dissertation Award
Eastman School Of Music, Alfred Mann Dissertation Prize
American Association For University Women, American Fellowship ($30,000.00)
Boston Public Library, Alicia Monti Research Fellowship
Association For Recorded Sound Collection, Research Grant
Mu Phi Alpha Sinfonia Foundation, Research Assistance Grant
Music Library Association, Dena Epstein Award
More Information
Recent Publications, Scholarly Papers, and Panel Presentations
Forthcoming:
- "Odd Angles and Trick Floors: A Closer Look at the Horn Trios of Johannes Brahms and György Ligeti," Historic Brass Society Journal35 (2024).
- Orchestrating Whiteness: Arthur Fiedler, Serge Koussevitzky, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Under contract with University of Illinois Press. Abstract: This book looks at the repertory of the Boston Symphony Orchestra through the artistic agendas of its two conductors during the 1930s and 40s, Serge Koussevitzky and Arthur Fiedler, and shows how the repertories programmed by the two conductors grew further and further apart during this time period in response to changing demographics and cultural mores. While Koussevitzky championed the aesthetics of a pure, non-referential (or "absolute"), sacralized canon—the aesthetic most commonly associated with classical music today—Fiedler programmed orchestral works with overt ethnic markers, jazz references, and other "popular" music influences. My work examines the musical choices of the two conductors through the changing lenses of race, ethnicity, class, and commercialism at the time and through the efforts to define American identity after World War II. While acknowledging the pros and cons of both Fiedler's and Koussevitzky's agendas, this book takes a hard look at the racial assumptions that underlie conventions still commonly found in the classical music world today, such as the distinction between "lowbrow" and "highbrow" and addresses the historical roots of systemic racism in classical music in the United States.
- "Qualities of High Engagement for Student Online Discussion Forums," with co-investigators Lea Campbell, Ph.D., Edmund Cueva, Ph.D., Bridget Mueller, M.A., and Mikayel Yegiyan, M.S. IRB approval awarded December 2023, research to commence in spring 2024.
"The Boston Pops: An American Institution and Its European Roots." Journal of Musicological Research 42, no. 2 (2023): 1-37.
"The Classical Ideal and the Repertory of the Boston Symphony Orchestra," American Musicological Society New England Chapter Conference, Virtual, 2023
"Jews and Whiteness: Researching the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1930-1950," panelist for research session titled, "Musical Whiteness and the Researcher's Racial Positionality," American Musicological Society and Society for Ethnomusicology National Conference, New Orleans, LA, 2022
"From Boléro to The Carioca: Influences of the Iberian World at the Boston Pops, 1930-1950," College Music Society National Conference, Long Beach, CA, 2022
"Lecture-Recital: Unsung Legacy: Unpublished Art Songs by the African American L.A. Composer Harold Bruce Forsythe (1908-76)," Panel Chair, College Music Society National Conference, Long Beach, CA, 2022
"The Battle Over Teaching Critical Race Theory in Arts Higher Education," Chair and Moderator, College Music Society National Conference, Long Beach, CA, 2022
"Classical Music in Contemporary Media: The Boston Pops," University of Gothenburg International Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2022
"Global Community Engagement Between the New World Symphony and Iberacademy in Medellin," International Conference of The College Music Society, Bogotá and Medellín, Colombia, 2022
"Orchestrating Whiteness: Race at the Boston Symphony Orchestra," Society for American Music National Conference, online, 2021
"Structural Racism in Classical Music," College Music Society National Conference, Rochester, NY, 2021
Presidential Plenary Panel "Awadagin Pratt: Black in America: Change Leadership and Concert Programming," Moderator, College Music Society National Conference, Rochester, NY, 2021
"The Underrepresented of the Underrepresented: Raising Awareness of Post-1800 Female Composers," Moderator, College Music Society National Conference, Rochester, NY, 2021
Presidential Plenary Panel "Progressive Curricular Change," Moderator, College Music Society National Conference, online, 2020
"Equity and Opportunity in Music Higher Education," Moderator, College Music Society National Conference, online, 2020
"'Made in Germany': Ethnicity, Race, and Conceptions of Musical Value at the Boston Symphony Orchestra," German Studies Association National Conference, Portland, OR, 2019
"Rethinking Conservatory-Derived Assumptions about the Education of Diverse Career-Aspiring Musicians," College Music Society National Conference, Vancouver, Canada, 2018
"Inclusion, Access, Relevance: Addressing 21st-Century Higher Education Challenges through Shared Governance," Panelist, College Music Society National Conference, San Antonio, TX, 2017
"The Critical Response to Profitable Concerts: Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra, 1930-1950," Music and the Middlebrow, University of Notre Dame, London, England, 2017
"Creating and Sustaining Global Online Communities and Partnerships," Classical:NEXT Conference, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 2015
"Creating Global Partnerships Using Internet2," Internet2 Global Summit, Washington, DC, 2015
"'Classical Music for People Who Hate Classical Music': Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops," University of Rochester Institute for Popular Music Lecture Series, Rochester, NY, 2015
"Embedding Entrepreneurship across the Institution," Network of Music Career Development Officers Conference, Manhattan School of Music, New York, NY, 2015
Recent Invited Talks
University Of Houston-Downtown, Houston, TX, "How the Quality Matters Rubric Supports the Inclusive Classroom," 2023
University Of Houston, Houston, TX, "Strategic Planning for Arts Entrepreneurship," 2023
University Of Houston-Downtown, Houston, TX, "Best Practices in Inclusive Pedagogy for Online Asynchronous Courses: Syllabus Creation and Discussion Forum Design," 2022
University Of Houston-Downtown, Houston, TX, Communication Studies Speaker Event Panelist, "Can't We All Just Get Along?: Being Jewish in Houston," 2022
Depauw University, Greencastle, IN, February 2021
Hong Kong University, Hong Kong, November 2019
Chinese University Of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, November 2019
Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, November 2019
Hong Kong University Of Science And Technology, Hong Kong, November 2019
Sunway University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, November 2019
Hong Kong Arts Administrators Association, Hong Kong, November 2019
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, March 2017
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, Entrepreneurship Residency, April 2016
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, October 2016
Stetson University, DeLand, FL, February 2015
Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL, October 2015