Music Center Selects Its New President

After three years of interim leadership, the Music Center of Los Angeles County on Thursday named as its new president Joanne Corday Kozberg, who served as state Secretary of State and Consumer Affairs under former Gov. Pete Wilson. She assumes the post in mid-February.

Kozberg, 54, who left the state post in August, served from 1991 to 1993 as executive director of the California Arts Council and was the council’s chairwoman from 1989 to 1991. From 1983 to 1990 she was a senior aide to Wilson in the U.S. Senate.

“For me, it’s a wonderful synthesis of all my experience understanding the arts from a statewide perspective,” Kozberg said in an interview Thursday.

Kozberg’s involvement with the Music Center--the fund-raising arm of the downtown theater complex--dates back nearly two decades. She served on its board of governors from 1980 to 1991, and from 1988 to 1991 was president of the Blue Ribbon, the center’s women’s support group.

The Music Center’s annual Unified Fund drive raises money for the center’s four resident companies, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Center Theater Group, L.A. Opera and the Master Chorale. The county-owned complex, which includes the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson theaters, will be home to the once-embattled Walt Disney Concert Hall, slated to open in 2002.

The Music Center has been without a president since Shelton g. Stanfill resigned after less than two years on the job, in January 1996, to become president of the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta. Stanfill succeeded Esther Wachtell, who resigned in 1993 following two years of controversy over accounting and spending practices.

Since Stanfill’s resignation, the post has been filled on an interim basis by Music Center Executive Vice President Nicholas T. Goldsborough, who will stay on in his current job.

“I am pleased that we brought resolution to this, and I think Joanne is an outstanding person, and I’m looking forward to working with her,” Goldsborough said. “I think there is a huge amount of work to be done to reposition this institution for a new era.”

Music Center Chairman Andrea Van de Kamp said the Music Center board waited so long to appoint a president because “we wanted the right person, and secondly I wanted to make sure that the Music Center was a very healthy place.

“We have finished the bulk of the fund-raising for Disney Hall. I think it’s a very good time, because we are healthy,” Van de Kamp said. “I didn’t think that a person of Joanne’s caliber would be interested in looking at the job if the Music Center were not healthy.”