Chamber Music SF: A Case Study in Change Management

Change – “the only constant” – comes to us all and always presents a challenge. As the last month has shown, even the most powerful in the highest ranks are not immune to sudden changes in fate.

Also in the music world, Esa-Pekka Salonen, music director of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, will leave his post next June, and a similar change is coming in Los Angeles when Gustavo Dudamel, music and artistic director of the LA Philharmonic, leaves for New York in 2026.

SF Classical Voice has long followed the changes in local music organizations and at times brought together a number of them. Today it is about a complex but well-managed leadership change at San Francisco's Chamber Music SF – a colorful miniature with potential lessons for organizations with much larger budgets.

Chamber Music SF (CMSF) has a budget that is only a fraction of that of San Francisco’s largest arts institutions — Daniel Levensteinits founder and first CEO, described it as “a no-frills operation” with a single workforce – and yet the changing of the guard there was both complex and instructive.

A profile from 2018 in San Francisco Examiner By comparison, Levenstein's work at Chamber Music San Francisco, which he founded 20 years ago, would make herding cats seem relaxing.

Levenstein just retired a few months agobut the process of passing the torch to his successor, Jeanette Wong, took much longer and included a nationwide search by the Catherine French Group and a board search committee.

“Search processes always take forever,” says Wong. “The search was already underway when I submitted my application in February. I think there were four rounds in total of screenings, interviews and presentations.”

“I got the offer in April and then there were meetings to work on the announcement and timeline for the transition. Not bad for me, considering how long some processes can take.”

After Wong’s selection, she had the opportunity to “accompany Daniel at concerts at each venue and learn about his production logistics, [being] to the supporters. I was able to attend a donor dinner and met our production, front-of-house and box office teams at each venue.” (CMSF Concerts are offered in San Francisco, Walnut Creek and Palo Alto.)

According to Levenstein, “Although Jeanette is decades younger than me, she has more experience in established arts organizations than I do and is accordingly better known in the music scene.

“I came to art administration very suddenly, through help to start “I built the Smuin Ballet from scratch and learned a lot during my nine years there,” he recalls. “I also started Chamber Music SF from scratch and am honestly amazed at our success.

“Jeanette has worked in the orchestral world and received extensive on-the-job training, absorbing a great deal of institutional knowledge along the way. She is now truly a professional. If she can maintain the high artistic standards and theatrical flair that are our trademark, I have every confidence that she will lead the organization into a future that offers some pretty sensational growth opportunities.”

Although it was a nationwide search, the choice fell on someone local—Wong was born and raised in San Francisco. She graduated from the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. She went on to earn a BA in music theory and composition from New York University, and her music has been performed throughout the United States and Europe. Wong's interest in multimedia has led to collaborations in film, dance, and theater, in addition to more traditional concert and chamber works.

Wong's career began in 2004 – coincidentally the year of CMSF's first season – in a public relations role at VH1 television in New York City, but she soon found herself drawn back to classical music, taking a position with the League of American Orchestras.

From there, Wong returned to San Francisco to join the staff of the San Francisco Symphony, where she served in several high-level positions, gaining first-hand insight into the organization's inner workings. She was also a member of the team that launched SoundBox, one of the Symphony's most popular and innovative series.

Prior to joining CMSF, Wong served as Associate Director of Artistic Programming at SFJAZZ, where her responsibilities included directing the SFJAZZ Collective, booking the Joe Henderson Lab, and producing special events such as the SFJAZZ Gala and the NEA Jazz Masters Tribute.

Unlike many situations where outgoing and incoming managers have little or no time for meetings, Wong says, “I had the pleasure of doing a full onboarding with Daniel. His support really touched me as I stepped into the new role. We talked several times about how interesting it is that we look at arts management, and in particular presenting, from two different perspectives.”

“He has always been part of a small team, whereas I come from large institutions. I look forward to leading the organization into the next chapter and building on the strong foundation that Daniel has created.”

CMSFs current And upcoming seasons were programmed by Levenstein; the 2026 “hybrid season” will be organised by Wong and Levenstein on a “fifty-fifty” basis. But Wong already has many ideas for the future of the organisation. “It seems like there is a yearning for more connection and engagement from both the artists and our audiences,” she notes. “I'm looking at opportunities for engagement activities. I see opportunities to expand our digital presence, knowing that a lot of people learn about and listen to music on social media and the internet.”

Next year’s concerts include the San Francisco debut of Yunchan Lim, the engineeraging South Korean pianist who caused an international sensation two years ago at the age of 18 when he won the Van Cliburn Competition. His concerto includes Goldberg Variations by JS Bach and Variations op. 27 by Anton Webern.

“A lot of my programming philosophy comes from my background in music education,” says Wong. “I love getting people excited about music. I find that the best way to do that is to give people context about what they're listening to and remind them why classical music is still relevant today. I also firmly believe that music is for everyone and that we need to dispel the myth that classical music is only for the 'elite.'”