Hanako Yamaguchi of Lincoln Center

As spring arrives, New York’s artistic institutions traditionally unveil their plans for the arts season that will commence in the fall. Within those organizations, however, such plans are already old news; creative heads wrapped them up the previous year and are already focusing on the future. For example, last week while the 2008 Mostly Mozart Festival was being announced, Hanako Yamaguchi, Lincoln Center’s director of music programming, was making plans for 2009.

The same was true of Yamaguchi’s counterparts at Carnegie Hall: Anna Weber, general manager of artistic operations, and Jeremy Geffen, director of artistic programming. Meanwhile, the New York Philharmonic’s artistic administrator, Matias Tarnopolsky, spent most of that day plotting the orchestra’s 2009–10 season. All four work outside the spotlight’s glare. Yet the contributions made by these individuals—and others like them in every arts organization—are fundamental to what music you hear in New York each season.

Matias Tarnopolsky of the New York Philharmonic

“Orchestras want to present what is best for our market and for our series,” Yamaguchi explains, “and also have to complement the other presentations within that series. For the big orchestras, there are tours that come with suggested programs. But chamber orchestras, lieder recitals, chamber music—all those are more individual. There’s not only one way we determine what gets performed by whom.”

As Carnegie Hall has reached beyond the d classical sphere, its creative team has had to adjust to the shorter timelines prevalent among jazz and pop performers. “We’re focused on ’09–’10, but we also have projects that we’re talking about for ’12–’13,” Geffen says. “We’re also working on details for ’08–’09,” Weber adds, “and we’re trying to go to the concerts that are taking place in ’07–’08.” Traveling to scout out new talent is part of the job, Geffen says, but just taking in all the talent that comes to Carnegie Hall is a full-time endeavor.

Anna Weber and Jeremy Geffen of Carnegie Hall

Unlike his colleagues at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, the Philharmonic’s Tarnopolsky has a single mandate on which to focus. “The three-person team that does the planning for the 2009–10 season is Alan Gilbert, Zarin Mehta and me,” he explains. “We all bring ideas to the table, and I have many of the conversations with artists that result from the planning process.” Another responsibility is advocacy, he says, whether that means bringing an idea to the attention of Gilbert and Mehta, conveying it to the marketing and PR departments, or delivering it to an audience through preconcert talks and online forums.

Despite constant deadlines and a blizzard of minutiae, each of these executives is driven by a genuine passion for music. At his desk, Tarnopolsky picks up a cherished photograph of rapt young girls at a BBC Proms concert during World War II, discovering music in the same way he came to it decades later. “The secret of why we do our jobs,” he says, “is that we get to go to all these concerts for free.”

Another enticement, Geffen says, is the opportunity to bring new work to life, as he discovered one day over lunch with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. “She wanted to do something a little different, and she was really interested in [jazz pianist] Brad Mehldau,” Geffen recalls. On the spot, he phoned a colleague at Carnegie Hall, who contacted Mehldau’s manager. “By the time lunch was over, she was on her way up to see Brad, and that afternoon the commission for a song cycle was born.” Von Otter will present the new work in her recital next February. “It’s pretty rare that something happens that quickly,” Geffen says, “but it’s such a rush when it does.”

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