Keith Cerny, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since 2019, will leave in January to head an out-of-state arts organization to be named.
His departure was announced in a news release issued by the FWSO Thursday afternoon.
Cerny was general director of the Dallas Opera between 2010 and 2017, leaving for a short tenure as general director of Calgary Opera in Canada.
In cooperation with FWSO board chair Mercedes T. Bass, Cerny hired American conductor Robert Spano as the orchestra’s music director, starting in 2022, and principal guest conductors Kevin John Edusei (from 2022 to 2025) and, since 2025, Jane Glover.
Cerny has worked with Spano to create mixed-media symphonic programs in partnerships with area theater and dance companies and art museums. Spano has also inaugurated a chamber music series.
With Cerny’s and Bass’ leadership, the FWSO was the rare orchestra to keep musicians and staff on full pay during the COVID-19 pandemic.
An accomplished pianist with degrees in music and physics from the University of California, Berkeley, Cerny holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Ph.D. in econometrics and development policy from the Open University in the U.K. Before joining the Dallas Opera, he worked for the management consulting firms McKinsey & Co. and Accenture, as executive director and CFO of the San Francisco Opera, and CEO of SheetMusicPlus.com.