Barbara Feld will be missed. She plans to retire as executive director of Tuesday Musical, the 125-year old arts group and Knight Arts grantee. Tuesday Musical was founded and supported generously by Clara I. Knight (mother of the founders of the John S. and James L Knight Foundation), and an organization that produced six special performances a year with the likes of Arthur Rubinstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Van Cliburn, Isaac Stern, Luciano Pavarotti, Andre Watts, Itzhak Perlman, Cecilia Bartoli and Renée Fleming, among others.

Barbara Feld served as executive director of Tuesday Musical from 1989-2013. Photo from www.tuesdaymusical.org

Barbara’s absence will be felt because of her strong and valuable presence to arts lovers – and to some of us media types.

Barbara was indefatigable in promoting her performers. Many a time she’d say, “Can you do both a preview and a review for my performers?” For most media sources short on space, that’s a big effort, especially for reviews when performances only last one evening. But Barbara tried, and that matters.

She was always great about getting telephone interviews with some very imposing and intimidating personalities. I remember being awestruck (and slightly bumbling) when trying to be at ease with the likes of world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell and cellist YoYo Ma.

Leaving no stone unturned, Barbara went through her press releases and program notes with the fervor of the most fastidious copy editor. When she wasn’t sure, she asked questions – from specific dates through organizational relationships to clear historical precedents and causal factors.

We wish Barbara Feld well as she retires as executive director on June 30, when her replacement, Jarrod Hartzler, will come on board to guide Tuesday Musical into its next iteration.

Barbara Feld and Jarrod Hartzler, Tuesday Musical. Photo by Joe Levack

A Wooster native and graduate of The College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, Hartzler has worked as a not-for-profit arts manager and arts educator locally and statewide. He has worked at the Wayne Center for the Arts in Wooster, the Delaware County Cultural Arts Center in Delaware, Ohio, and served as Executive Director of VSA arts of Ohio in Columbus.

Hartzler has participated in several education programs of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, including the Partners in Education program with the Tri-County ESC and Wayne Center for the Arts. Hartzler was a 2008 fellow in the Kennedy Center’s Arts Management Institute, where he studied with Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser and worked with senior Kennedy Center staff to implement marketing, development and education strategies.

Current board affiliations for Hartzler include the Ohio Citizens for the Arts and Ohio Alliance for Arts Education.