Kathleen van Bergen is the artistic and executive director of The Schubert Club. A native of Andover, New Jersey, she began playing the violin at age four, and music has been a central part of her life ever since. After enjoying life as a violinist, participating in festivals in the US and abroad, van Bergen spent ten years working for a few of our country’s great orchestras.
Ms. van Bergen came to The Schubert Club from The Philadelphia Orchestra, where she was the vice president of artistic planning. In that role, she worked collaboratively with the music director, Christoph Eschenbach, the Orchestra’s artistic advisory committee, and other members of the management team to guide the artistic direction and program planning decisions for all concerts – in Philadelphia, national residencies and international tours. During van Bergen's tenure, The Philadelphia Orchestra toured Europe, Asia, the United States and Puerto Rico, as well as maintained a four concert series annually at Carnegie Hall. As the vice president of artistic planning, van Bergen managed education and community partnership and was responsible for overseeing electronic media. During her tenure, the orchestra produced nine recordings, created an on-line music download store and began experimenting with HD broadcasts of concerts. The critical education goal, in addition to childrens’ concerts and family series was, the strategic initiative “Raising the Invisible Curtain”, which aimed to breakdown barriers between the musicians and the audience. In her role as chief artistic administrator, van Bergen worked with some of the greatest conductors of the world stage including Christoph Eschenbach, Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Charles Dutoit, Osmo Vänskä, Vladimir Jurowski and Sir Simon Rattle.
Prior to her role with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Ms. van Bergen spent more than five years with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra where she rose quickly to vice president and director of artistic administration, the top administrative artistic position. This period in the Symphony's history, however, was filled with turmoil. Shortly after the transition from Leonard Slatkin to Hans Vonk, Hans Vonk became ill, and was forced to resign from his role as Music Director and Conductor. The Saint Louis Symphony committed to a major reorganization, which reduced expenses, dramatically changed the programmatic offerings and began to provide a long-term strategy for organizational health. It was during these five-plus years of Ms. van Bergen’s tenure that the Symphony received and matched the Taylor Family’s $40 million endowment gift, reduced the artistic planning budget by 50%, reprioritized programming and engaged David Robertson as the next Music Director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.
In March 2008, van Bergen became the Artistic and Executive Director of The Schubert Club, Minnesota’s first arts organization. Under van Bergen's leadership, The Schubert Club has flourished financially and artistically and is growing in breadth and depth. The organization continues to end each year with a balanced budget, even in these financially uncertain times. Additionally, in November 2009, The Schubert Club completed, and exceeded, a $5 million, 125th anniversary campaign. This campaign focused on both endowment and capitol efforts, ensuring the stability of the organization’s artistic and educational programming, as well as expanding and renovating the organization’s museum. The Schubert Club Museum is a 5,000 square foot space dedicated to the evolution of the keyboard, a manuscript collection, world music and an intimate recital hall. A few highlights of the 3,000 piece Museum collection include a 1542 Die Rossi spinet, letters from composers such as Mozart, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Mahler, and world instruments like Indian vinas and a complete gamelan orchestra.
The Schubert Club has completed a re-branding effort, which included logo, design standards, and a complete website overhaul. This effort was only possible with thanks to generous pro-bono expertise of Minneapolis-based Padilla, Speer, Beardsley. Artistically, The Schubert Club is committed to presenting the world’s greatest artists in recital and chamber music performance. A credit to the illustrious history of The Schubert Club as well as many strong relationships, the organization has presented incredible artists over its 128-year history. This continues today; in the last few seasons artists presented include Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Bryn Terfel, Thomas Quasthoff, Leonidas Kavakos, Joshua Bell, Lang Lang and Yefim Bronfman. In an effort to expand quality artistic programming as well as the impact in the Twin Cities community, The Schubert Club has completed a merger with St. Anthony Park-based Music in the Park Series. As of July 1, 2010, the successful 32-year-old chamber music series is now a part of The Schubert Club. These efforts display van Bergen’s commitment to the strategic alignment of artistic, financial and public relations efforts. In collaboration with the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, the Minnesota Opera and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Schubert Club is a proud member of the Arts Partnership, an organization created by the resident organizations of the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts to create, in partnership, the expansion of the Ordway and build an endowment to ensure stability for the future of performing arts in Saint Paul.
Kathleen van Bergen holds a Bachelor’s degree in violin performance from the Eastman School of Music and an Executive Master of Business Administration degree from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Ms. van Bergen serves on the Board of The Rose Ensemble and the National Board of the American Composers Forum. She regularly speaks on artistic planning and the role of the performing arts in our communities. A few of her recent invitations have been at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, Macalester College, the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music, the American Association of University Women, St. Paul chapter, and the Woman's Club of Minneapolis. Ms. van Bergen has recently been accepted into the Wilder Institute's James P. Shannon Leadership program, where she will be a 2011 participant.
