L.A. Phil’s new president and CEO is Kim Noltemy

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has named Kim Noltemy its new president and CEO. Noltemy will assume the role July 8, leaving Dallas Symphony Assn., where she also served as president and CEO since 2018. She takes over from interim CEO Daniel Song after L.A. Phil chief Chad Smith decamped for the Boston Symphony last fall.

Noltemy’s appointment comes at a pivotal time for L.A. Phil, which must find someone to take over the reins as the organization’s music and artistic director when Gustavo Dudamel leaves for the New York Philharmonic in 2026. Dudamel is a towering figure of classical music and his loss with likely ricochet across the organization, requiring a steady hand to right the ship and continue leading the organization down the path that, up until now, has made it perhaps the most-admired orchestra in the country.

The L.A. Phil was among the few arts organizations in the city to emerge relatively unscathed from the tumult and damage of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s not to say it didn’t suffer mightily — having at one point lost an estimated $100 million in projected income. But by 2023, the orchestra’s board chairman told The Times it would end the year with record sales and income of $160 million.

Like Smith at the L.A. Phil, Noltemy, guided the Dallas Symphony Orchestra through the pandemic. During her tenure with the organization, she was committed to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that were credited with expanded programming, as well as increased opportunities for BIPOC artists and staff. Prior to her time in Dallas, Noltemy worked for more than two decades with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where she ultimately served as chief operating and communications officer.

“I look forward to welcoming Kim into our LA Phil family. Our extraordinary musicians and organization have shown the world a powerful new vision for what an orchestra can be, and how it can impact the community around it, and I am confident we will continue to push ourselves to even greater heights in the years to come,” said Dudamel in a news release.