President Jon Limbacher, who led the nonprofit through the pandemic, will retire when his contract’s up in a year. He recently faced criticism from the musicians’ union.

By Jenna Ross

The Minnesota Star Tribune

November 8, 2024 at 9:26PM

Jon Limbacher has spent two decades in leadership roles at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. At the end of 2025, he will retire from the nonprofit. (Provided/St. Paul Chamber Orchestra)

The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s president and managing director Jon Limbacher will retire in December 2025, at the end of his five-year contract, the nonprofit announced Thursday.

Limbacher’s time as president, which began in 2016, has been marked by balanced budgets, even through the pandemic, which walloped performing arts organizations across the country. This year, he has faced criticism from the orchestra’s musicians.

“I do really strongly believe that you have to balance an organization’s leadership stability with periodic change,” said Limbacher, who was also with the SPCO from 2000 to 2012, finishing as chief operating officer. “I’ve been here in a leadership role for over 20 years. There’s a point where the organization needs new ideas and new perspectives.

“This seems like a pretty natural time to bring about that kind of transition.”

In May, following the resignation of Kyu-Young Kim as artistic director, members of the musicians union announced a vote of no confidence in Limbacher, warning that “the community is at risk of losing the SPCO.” They were critical of Limbacher’s attempt to dramatically cut the number of concert weeks per season, among other things.

But in September, the SPCO and its musicians announced the ratification of a three-year contract.

By phone Friday, Limbacher, 62, said that the no-confidence vote didn’t influence his decision to retire from the organization. Even when he signed his contract, he thought there was “a pretty good chance 10 years would be enough.”

A national search for his successor starts now, according to a news release.

During his tenure, the chamber orchestra launched a free online concert library, offering children and students free tickets and creating a rainy day fund. That fund, along with private donations and federal support, helped the SPCO continue to pay its staff and musicians even after COVID-19 shuttered stages.

“It was really becoming clear in the spring of 2020 that we were in for a long time period of not doing concerts, and it was going to be turbulent and challenging,” Limbacher said. “We made a commitment to maintain compensation for staff and the orchestra.

“We all feel really good about that.”

It was Limbacher’s planning “that brought the SPCO through the pandemic in better financial shape than most orchestras in the country and has put us in a strong position to deal with the hard issues now facing the arts community,” said Deborah Palmer, chair of the SPCO board of directors, in a statement.