![\"Howard](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/MIA_New_World_Symphony_MJO_1.JPG\" "\\"Howard")
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Howard Herring, president and CEO of the New World Symphony, is photographed at the New World Center on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, in Miami Beach, Fla. Fellows with the New World Symphony took part in a rehearsal session at the center Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Photo by Matias J. Ocner<\/p>\n
mocner@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
For nine straight years, Howard Herring had his head down, hard at work imagining decades into the future.<\/p>\n
He was tasked with helping conductor Michael Tilson Thomas bring his vision of a world-class music education program and orchestra to fruition with a new facility in Miami Beach. Three years of conceptualizing, three years of designing, three years of building the New World Center, the state-of-the-art home of the New World Symphony. They asked themselves, \u201cWhat will we be in 2030?\u201d<\/p>\n
In the middle of it all, Herring recalled, he brought his head up, looked around and thought to himself, \u201cThis is the most wonderful city I could ever live in.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the building was completed in 2011, Herring thought to himself again, \u201cI think I\u2019ll just keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
For 25 years, Herring did keep going as New World Symphony\u2019s CEO and president. This week, he announced that he will retire on June 30.<\/p>\n
New World Symphony CEO and president Howard Herring (center) with New World Symphony co-founder Michael Tilson Thomas (right) and Joshua Robison, Tilson Thomas\u2019 late husband. Chris Burch Courtesy of New World Symphony <\/p>\n
\u201cI love what I do. I love this institution, but it is time for someone else to take the lead,\u201d Herring, 76, told the Herald. \u201cIt\u2019s the right time for me, right time for New World.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herring\u2019s departure comes at moment of both stability and institutional change for New World Symphony, a prestigious ensemble and intensive three-year fellowship program where music graduates hone their skills, artists from around the world perform and residents can enjoy the music projected onto the outside of the building for free.<\/p>\n
Four years ago, Tilson Thomas, the founding artistic director, stepped down from his role<\/a> due to health concerns. The symphony then appointed renowned French conductor St\u00e9phane Den\u00e8ve as artistic director,<\/a> who has proven to be the perfect fit, Herring said. Simultaneously, the symphony\u2019s financial future is secure after Herring fundraised $150 million for the institution\u2019s endowment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are settled programmatically. Financially, our donor base continues to grow. We have more presence in Miami and around the world. The number of applicants [for the fellowship] continues to rise. This year, we will have at least 1,300 applicants for the 35 openings of next year\u2019s orchestra,\u201d Herring said. \u201cWe\u2019re in a strong position, and this would be the right time for us to search for a successor.\u201d<\/p>\n Besides the endowment, highlights of Herring\u2019s tenure include leading the organization through the Covid-19 pandemic, developing new concert formats and creating the Knight New Media Center.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a quarter-century, Howard Herring has led with imagination, integrity, and an unshakable belief in the power of music to transform lives,\u201d said William M. Osborne, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, in a statement. \u201cUnder his leadership, New World Symphony has become a model cultural institution that nurtures exceptional artists, embraces innovation, and welcomes new audiences to classical music. His impact will resonate for decades, and we are profoundly grateful for his remarkable stewardship.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout his time in Miami, he watched the area\u2019s nascent arts and culture scene grow into a global attraction. From 2006 to 2016, Herring noted, $1.3 billion worth of investment from public-private partnerships made way for the New World Center, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, P\u00e9rez Art Museum Miami, Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went from being a modest American city to a city that invested in culture. Serious culture, sophisticated culture,\u201d Herring said.<\/p>\n \u2018Architecture of invitation\u2019<\/p>\n While there\u2019s plenty to be proud of, Herring said he is most proud of the New World Center building, what it represents and how it serves the fellows and community.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m more proud of what the building has done,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is doing what we intended it to do. It\u2019s asking about the future. It challenges us to imagine the future.\u201d<\/p>\n When he arrived in Miami Beach in 2001, the New World Symphony was still performing at the Lincoln Theatre, a home it was quickly outgrowing. He and Tilson Thomas worked closely with visionary architect Frank Gehry, who died in December, to design the new building. Achieving \u201carchitecture of invitation\u201d was the goal, Herring said.<\/p>\n Tilson Thomas said they should start with the doors. \u201cDon\u2019t make this a formal front door, a suit-and-tie kind of front door. Make it an invitation,\u201d he told Gehry. Eighteen months later, Gehry had the design of the New World Center\u2019s facade.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you prop the doors of the atrium open, people who are walking the sidewalk in front of the building do not see a barrier. They see invitation, and they quite naturally walk through those doors,\u201d Herring said. \u201cWe are in the city together. Who we are inside the door and who we are outside the door is all one piece.\u201d<\/p>\n Much of Herring\u2019s tenure has focused on how technology, and the symphony\u2019s longtime partnership with the Knight Foundation, can help classical music reach as many people as possible. The symphony\u2019s popular Wallcast is also part of its open invitation to the general public: the New World Center invites people, free of charge, to lounge on its front lawn and watch a livestream of the concert happening inside the building projected onto the building\u2019s facade.<\/p>\n That connection with the community is priceless, Herring said. A survey showed that 75 percent of Wallcast audiences have never purchased a ticket to see a New World concert indoors.<\/p>\n Herring likes to walk around the lawn to meet people who come to watch the Wallcasts. Years ago, he introduced himself to a group of young women. They told him they had never been to a Wallcast before, but they came to watch the orchestra perform Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov\u2019s \u201cScherharzade\u201d that night. He asked why.<\/p>\n \u201cMy name is Scherharzade!\u201d one of the women said. \u201cMy mother was a dancer. My mother loved \u2018Scheherazade,\u2019 so she named me Scheherazade. But I\u2019ve never heard the piece.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s just one example of how New World aims to \u201cdemocratize\u201d classical music, Herring said. He was very proud to say the Wallcast idea has been copied by other music organizations in Miami-Dade, Sarasota, Louisville and even Brazil.<\/p>\n Mon ami<\/p>\n Herring\u2019s retirement has been very emotional to process, said Den\u00e8ve, who calls Herring \u201cmon ami,\u201d my friend. Herring cares deeply about his team, the fellows, the music and the community, Den\u00e8ve said. While Herring constantly thinks about the future, Den\u00e8ve said he is also very present. Unlike many CEOs, he said, Herring is a consistent presence at the symphony, attending concerts and interacting with audiences.<\/p>\n \u201cI just love the man,\u201d Den\u00e8ve said.<\/p>\n As great as he is as a leader, Den\u00e8ve said Herring is just as kind. Whenever a New World Symphony alum has a new baby, Herring mails them a onesie with the symphony\u2019s logo on it.<\/p>\n Den\u00e8ve recalled a recent full-circle moment. Long before he became artistic director, Den\u00e8ve would come to the New World Center to perform. In 2011, Den\u00e8ve\u2019s daughter Alma, who was 3 at the time, drew a little butterfly and gave it to Herring, who has kept that drawing in his office ever since. Just last week, Alma came to New World\u2019s gala, where she celebrated her 18th birthday.<\/p>\n Hopefully, Den\u00e8ve said, whoever fills Herring\u2019s shoes has the same level of care, passion, curiosity and dedication.<\/p>\n \u201cThis position is much more attractive now than it was when Howard took the position. It\u2019s a much better institution. The budget, the endowment, the building, the recognition. It\u2019s a very successful story,\u201d Den\u00e8ve said. \u201cWe need to try to find somebody that embraces all of this, somebody that wants to have the same impact on the community.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was originally published March 5, 2026 at 3:41 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Howard Herring, president and CEO of the New World Symphony, is photographed at the New World Center on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85252,123,1642,125,124,85253,76305,12297],"class_list":["post-180328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-howard-herring","tag-miami","tag-miami-beach","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-new-world-center","tag-new-world-symphony","tag-retirement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Neisen O. Kasdin, Chair of the Board of Directors for the Miami Downtown Development Authority, left, Howard Herring, President and CEO of the New World Symphony, center and Michael Tilson Thomas, Artistic Director of the New World Symphony, take a hard-hat tour of the new building in 2010. The building opened in 2011. Barbara P. Fernandez Courtesy of New World Symphony <\/p>\n
Howard Herring (right) with architect Frank Gehry and New World Symphony co-founder Lin Arison visiting the New World Center construction site. The building was completed in 2011. Abdiel Thorne Courtesy of New World Symphony <\/p>\n
(From left to right) Alan Lieberman, New World Symphony artistic director St\u00e9phane Den\u00e8ve, Diane Lieberman, New World Symphony CEO and president Howard Herring and Kristin Podack pose for a photo at the New World Center in 2024. Manny Hernandez Courtesy of New World Symphony <\/p>\n