These last few years have been a time of change for the New World Symphony, the Miami Beach-based orchestral academy co-founded by conductor Michael Tilson Thomas in 1987.
In 2022, Tilson Thomas stepped down as artistic director, after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.
He died this past April at the age of 81.
And now another chapter is coming to a close. This week, Howard Herring retires after 25 years as New World Symphony’s President and CEO.
During his tenure, he helped guide NWS through a period of significant growth, including the 2011 opening of the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center in Miami Beach.
Herring recalls that on day one of the design process in 2002, Tilson Thomas asked Gehry's team to start at the front entrance and design "an invitation."
"And the result of that is that now, 15 years in, we have invited a lot of people into this building through the design of the facade — and the Wallcast," he says.
New World Symphony's WALLCAST® experience is widely considered a groundbreaking innovation in the world of classical music.
It broadcasts live performances from inside the New World Center — essentially turning the building's 7,000-square-foot exterior into a massive projection wall.
The experience includes a state-of-the-art audio system delivering quality sound to the audiences watching for free in the adjacent Soundscape Park.
Throughout the last 25 years, Herring focused heavily on helping fulfill Tilson Thomas's mission; to create a training academy that would prepare music conservatory graduates — called Fellows — for leadership roles in professional orchestras.
READ MORE: The Maestro in Miami Beach: How Michael Tilson Thomas changed South Florida's cultural scene
Since its inaugural 1988 orchestra, NWS has helped launch the careers of over 1,300 alumni worldwide. Herring says about 85% of them are still making music.
"We've actually — in this our 38th year — begun to see some of the early fellows retire from their professional orchestras," says Herring. "But they are making a difference in their faculties, in their communities, based on what they learned here."
New World Symphony refers to itself as a "laboratory" — an unusual designation for an orchestral academy, but one that Herring believes is perfectly apt.
"The digital reality has asked us to take a 1,000-year-old tradition and reimagine it," he says.
"This is true every time a new media emerges. Each time that happens, we must gather what is important from our past and reimagine it into the future. And in order to do that, you need a laboratory,"
To that end, Herring was key in establishing the Knight New Media Center — housed inside the New World Center.
The tech hub allows the fellows to explore video capturing, editing, webcasting and remote learning — in an effort to reshape how classical music is taught, produced and shared.
Herring says he's comfortable leaving the President and CEO mantle behind, as New World Symphony is in what he calls "a good place" — organizationally, financially and creatively.
For one thing, he's effusive in his praise of French conductor Stéphane Denève, who succeeded Tilson Thomas as NWS's Artistic Director in 2022.
So what advice does Herring have for whomever succeeds him? "Love the expression, 'What if?'" says Herring. "This is the land of 'What if?' That question is asked all the time at the New World Symphony.
"And if you can be comfortable with the uncertainty that is evident in that question — and you can be excited about the pursuit of fresh ideas — then you will do just fine."
