New World Symphony President Reflects on Legacy and Future After 25 Years
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Howard Herring, president and chief executive officer of the New World Symphony, has reflected on his 25-year tenure and outlined his hopes for the institution’s continued evolution as a training ground for classical musicians and a cultural force in Miami.
Herring framed his remarks around the endurance of ideas beyond individual leaders, crediting founding artistic director Michael Tilson Thomas with shaping the organization’s core vision. He recalled Tilson Thomas’s view that artists face two defining moments, inventing themselves and then sustaining and sharing their vision over time, a process that requires continual rebirth and growth.
He said the New World Symphony has applied that concept to its own development as an institution, positioning itself as a laboratory that reimagines music education and the concert experience at a time when digital technology is reshaping how people create and consume art. In an environment where the pace of change is rapid and long-term strategy can be uncertain, he described the organization’s guiding principle as “forget your maps, use your compass.”
Looking ahead, Herring expressed a desire for the New World Symphony to keep its experiential curriculum aligned with the needs of emerging classical musicians, to engage audiences more deeply by experimenting with performance formats, and to continue using digital tools in innovative ways. He also emphasized the importance of strengthening the institution’s role as a cultural center of gravity for Miami and of relying on its alumni to carry its mission forward.
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