Music Center chief Rachel Moore’s contract extended through 2024
Fresh off the opening of its redesigned central plaza, the Music Center announced Thursday that President and Chief Executive Rachel S. Moore’s contract has been renewed for five years, through 2024.
Former L.A. City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski is the new board chairwoman.
“I’m honored and delighted to be staying another five years — at least!” Moore said in an interview. “And I’m excited to be at the Music Center at this moment, when we’re really looking outward at how we can bring value to every resident of L.A. County. I really do believe that the arts makes people’s lives better, and given that we’re supported by the county taxpayers, it’s our moral obligation to have programming that speaks to the hearts and minds of all people across the county.”
Moore joined the Music Center in 2015. She oversaw the 20-month, $41-million renovation of the plaza, led by L.A.-based Rios Clementi Hale Studios. She has restructured the organization with the goal of making the arts more accessible to Los Angeles County residents. That included the creation of new divisions, such as TMC Arts, which now oversees artistic programming at the Music Center, and TMC Ops, which oversees operations on the Music Center campus and adjacent Grand Park.
The Los Angeles Music Center will unveil its $41 million plaza revamp by Rios Clementi Hale Studios on Aug. 28. The project is meant to connect the cultural complex with Grand Park.
Moore also worked to increase the diversity of the board of directors, formerly 6% women and people of color, now 33% women and people of color. The directors voted unanimously to extend her contract.
In the announcement Thursday, Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis called Moore “a transformational leader who has the foresight to ask the tough questions and then create needed change.”
Miscikowski has been a Music Center board member since 2006 and vice chairwoman since 2017. At the reopening of the plaza this summer, the Music Center announced a $12-million gift from Miscikowski and her Ring-Miscikowski/the Ring Foundation. Those funds, together with an additional $2 million that the Music Center raised, make up seed money for the new TMC Arts Fund, which will provide free and low-cost programming, educational initiatives and dance to take place at the plaza and other Music Center venues.
This is “a pivotal time” for the Music Center, Miscikowski said in the announcement, adding that she was honored to guide the board “as we work to redefine what it means to be a performing arts institution of the 21st century.”
“Having Cindy Miscikowski and Rachel Moore at the helm of the Music Center gives me confidence about the future of arts for all in L.A. County,” Solis said.
Miscikowski replaces Lisa Specht, who was named chair emeritus.
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