Pacific Symphony Hires Spisto Successor

John E. Forsyte, executive director of the Kalamazoo Symphony in Michigan, has been chosen executive director of the Pacific Symphony, orchestra officials announced Thursday. He will begin a one-year contract May 25.

Forsyte, 32, succeeds Louis G. Spisto, who left last month after a 10-year tenure to become president of the Detroit Symphony.

“I’m thrilled,” Forsyte said Thursday from his office in Kalamazoo. “There is tremendous growth opportunity for this orchestra in many different facets. We’ll be looking to develop millennial programs as well as a 25th anniversary [season].

“Quite honestly, I wasn’t looking for a new job. Part of the appeal was Lou Spisto, who’s a friend and a respected colleague. I knew following in his work would be a positive and a great opportunity.”

Forsyte was the unanimous choice of a nine-member search committee, which evaluated about 40 candidates, said Janice M. Johnson, president of the Pacific Symphony.

‘He’s extremely bright,” she said Thursday. “He comes from a very cultured family in Chicago. He has a business background. He’s been a proven fund-raiser for the Kalamazoo orchestra. But above and beyond that, he has a very serious love for symphonic music. He’s played violin for 23 years and still does play.”

Forsyte will oversee administration, development, marketing and long-range planning for the orchestra and will work closely with music director Carl St.Clair on programming.

Forsyte spent six years at the helm in Kalamazoo, a city of about 80,000. According to a Pacific Symphony statement, he presided over increases in corporate giving, overall fund-raising and, most dramatically, the orchestra’s endowment, which jumped from $3 million to nearly $12 million, making it the largest in the nation for an orchestra of its size.

In 1995, the American Symphony Orchestra League honored him with the Helen M. Thompson Award for leadership shown by executive directors and music directors under age 35.

Forsyte, who has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana, previously served as general manager of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in Madison from 1988 to 1990. He spent 1991 in a management program sponsored by the American Symphony Orchestra League, working with the major orchestras in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Louisville, Ky.

Founded in 1921, the Kalamazoo Symphony is the third largest orchestra in Michigan, with an annual operating budget of $1.7 million. It offers about 45 classical, chamber, summer and educational concerts each year. Yoshimi Takeda has led the orchestra since 1974.

The Pacific Symphony, founded in 1979, presents more than 60 concerts each year on an annual budget of $7 million, making it the major orchestra in the county and the third largest in the state.