Newly named executive director of the Cape Symphony Orchestra, Mike Albaugh. Matthew Hall photograph
What a time to change jobs.
Consider Mike Albaugh, who started last week as executive director of the Cape Symphony & Conservatory.
The last day of his previous job — as director of education and community at the Philadelphia Orchestra — “was March 13,” he says, “when everything just stopped.”
On March 30, his first day of work at the CSO, nobody could come into the office.
“We’re all in the dark,” he says metaphorically of the situation, “trying to find the light switch, or the door.”
Before a pandemic shifted everyone’s normal existence, Albaugh thought he was coming to help grow an already dynamic arts organization, an orchestra expanding its programming and impact under long-term music director Jung-Ho Pak — a former colleague.
“He’s demonstrated how the arts can be transformative,” Albaugh says of Pak. “I’m here to help grow that energy, and see what we could do next.
“But it’s a difficult time now,” he says. “We are going to have a season, and we are in the right position to come out of this, when the veil lifts. But for right now, first and foremost is the health and safety of everyone, including our own musicians.”
Because of coronavirus concerns, the symphony has rescheduled this month’s concert featuring award-winning twin pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton to April 2021, and canceled what had been a May concert of Mahler and Mozart music. So far, a June 13-14 “Sinatra” concert is still on.
In ordinary times, this might simply be a story about old colleagues reuniting. Albaugh previously led Michigan’s massive Interlochen Center for the Arts, where Pak still serves as director of orchestras. Pak was instrumental in luring Albaugh to the Cape Symphony team, and Albaugh is joining an organization with ambitions to create a new model for orchestras.
“Our goal is business, not as usual,” Pak says. “Everyone else has a traditional way of looking at the symphony. I want to be a disruptive force, and I’m excited to have a partner who thinks the same way. I’ve been transforming the product on stage, and now we have to transform the business side.”
Pak’s enthusiasm — both on stage performing the music, and offstage proselytizing for the art form — runs genuinely deep. He and Albaugh hope to make the CSO something greater than just another entertainment choice: “a cultural mecca, a defining arts organization,” Albaugh suggests.
“I share his passion,” Albaugh says, “but I come at it from a different angle. I see it from the land, he sees it from the sea. I don’t try to talk him down, I try to turn those emotions into reality. I think half about what we’re doing, and half about what we can do.”
Under the altered global circumstances, the new Mashpee resident couldn’t be blamed for re-thinking his decision to switch jobs. But Albaugh hasn’t reconsidered.
“I was afforded this opportunity in January,” he says, “and my commitment hasn’t wavered. It’s an organization with remarkable pride. I’m here to work for no salary, or sacrifice some of my compensation, if that has to happen. That’s up to the board, but I’ve offered.”
For now, Pak’s notion of “business, not as usual” becomes a given. Some projects won’t get done, at least not soon. But both the Cape Symphony and the conservatory will become equal priorities once normal business resumes.
“To have a functioning conservatory, that’s a real asset, and I hope we can make that into something bigger,” Albaugh says. “When I went from Jazz at Lincoln Center to Philadelphia, I tried to bring some of the educational elements we used in jazz to the classical world. I can do that here too.”