Keith Cerny, the President and CEO of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, has announced that he will step down from the role in January 2027.
Prior to joining the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in 2018, Cerny served as the General Director of the Dallas Opera from 2010 to 2017, and he briefly held the position of General Director of the Calgary Opera.
In addition, Cerny was previously the Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of the San Francisco Opera and the CEO of SheetMusicPlus.com.
Over the course of his eight-year tenure with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Cerny helped develop multimedia symphonic programs in partnership with the Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Bruce Wood Dance Dallas, the Dallas Theater Center, the Kimbell Art Museum, the Sid Richardson Museum, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.
He also helped ensure that the orchestra’s musicians and staff members received full pay and benefits throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2022, Cerny and the orchestra’s board hired Music Director Robert Spano, a four-time Grammy Award winner. He also built relationships with principal guest conductors Kevin John Edusei and Jane Glover, the latter of whom has served in the role since 2025.
Originally trained as a pianist, Cerny holds degrees in music and physics from the University of California, Berkeley, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a doctorate from the United Kingdom’s Open University.