Longy School of Music Board of Trustees Names Karen Zorn 10th Head
The Board of Trustees of the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts has officially elected Karen Zorn to be the 10th Head of the Longy School. Zorn, the former Associate Provost and Associate Vice President of Berklee College of Music, was nominated by the Presidential Search Committee.
Zorn will succeed Anna Kuwabara, who has served as Interim President of the School since 2006. Kuwabara became interim president when Dr. Kwang-Wu Kim stepped down as Longy’s president to become dean of the Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University at Tempe. During her tenure, Ms. Kuwabara has overseen several key projects, most recently the renovation of the historic Rey-Waldstein building, as well as the school’s strategic planning processes.
While at Berklee, Zorn is credited with establishing best practices for academic leadership, creating a dynamic faculty development program, and significantly improving faculty diversity. Previously, she was Acting Executive Director at the MacPhail Center for the Arts, the second largest community music school in the United States. Zorn held faculty positions in piano at both Berklee and MacPhail.
“Karen Zorn brings tremendous strength of vision, musical accomplishment, and leadership skills to our community,” said Bonny Boatman, chair of the Board of Trustees and chair of the search committee. “She will build on these considerable achievements to take Longy to a new level of excellence.”
Zorn will assume the presidency of Longy on February 26, 2007.
“I am tremendously honored and excited to become the president of the Longy School of Music, says Zorn. “I look forward to continuing to build on Longy’s rich programs and to working with the students, faculty, staff, and board to realize its potential. Longy’s forward-thinking philosophy of ‘preparing musicians to make a difference in the world’, combined with its rigorous curriculum and community outreach programs, make it an essential institution in today’s world. I’m proud to be a part of it.”
About Longy …
The Longy School of Music is a degree-granting conservatory and school of preparatory and continuing music study founded in 1915 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The School has an outstanding faculty of 150 teachers providing instruction to over 1,200 students. With a curriculum rooted in the tradition of western music, Longy’s mission is to prepare musicians to make a difference in the world. Longy is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and the National Association of Schools of Music. For more information, visit Longy on the web at www.longy.edu.