Noltemy took flute lessons when she was young and grew better acquainted with orchestral music early in her career in Boston. Working in international marketing and development, she took clients from abroad to the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Later, she became its chief operation and communications officer.
“Then, I decided I think this is what I want to do for the rest of my life,” Noltemy says.
In 2018, she left Boston for Dallas, assuming a new position in a new city: president and CEO of the Dallas Symphony Association. She started with two central goals, one of which she completed in 2019. Noltemy advocated for the Dallas Symphony Association to run and care for the Meyerson Symphony Center rather than the City of Dallas, and she negotiated the transition of management in October 2019.
The building was created in September 1989 by architect I. M. Pei and acoustician Russell Johnson. It was Pei’s only concert hall. Noltemy speaks fondly of the Meyerson; she understands the responsibility that comes with the building.
“I realized that the city was not going to be able to take care of it in the right way,” she says. “The Dallas Symphony would take over running the building so that we could ensure that it is preserved and kept at the highest level, just like the orchestra.”
Along with the preservation of the Meyerson, she also wanted to ensure that the musicians weren’t confined within its walls, however impressive they may be. Her other goal as president and CEO was to help the DSO become part of the fabric of Dallasites’ daily lives — where people lived, worked and played. This goal would take a prolonged effort.
Noltemy wanted people to take civic pride in their orchestra, just as they might in the Mavericks or the Cowboys.
“It’s not as if people thought [the orchestra] was bad, they just never went or paid attention,” she says. “My goal is to get the Dallas Symphony to feel like everybody’s orchestra.”
She also wanted to create opportunities for people to see the symphony apart from the stunning but, perhaps, intimidating grandeur of the Meyerson.
“You get your chance to see our musicians around town, doing chamber music, doing educational activities. You know you are welcome if you would like to come,” Noltemy says.
In 2019, the DSO started its Young Musicians Program, based on the Venezuelan El Sistema model, which helps children learn music who may not have the opportunity otherwise.
“So we decided to do it in schools in southern Dallas,” she says. “We chose southern Dallas because southern Dallas is the area with the least investment with arts in the schools and in general.”
"My goal is to get the Dallas Symphony to feel like everybody’s orchestra.” – Kim Noltemy
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The program began with a few hundred students and has grown to around 700. Right now, it is running at Ebby Halliday Elementary, Maria Moreno Elementary, Ascher Silberstein Elementary, Haynes Global Prep and Trinity Basin Prep Ledbetter campus.
With a time commitment of 8–12 hours per week, the kids receive instruments and small group lessons, allowing them to play in a full orchestra at no cost.
“It just shows you if someone is interested and you give them all the tools they need, they can be absolutely amazing,” Noltemy says.
Kids in the program may grow up to be professional musicians, carry the hobby through a couple of years, or try it briefly and quit. All of those outcomes still make the program worth it for Noltemy and the Dallas Symphony.
“The more of us [orchestras] that do these things the better our future is because we are creating the audiences of tomorrow, the players of tomorrow, and, in the end, the donors of tomorrow as well,” Noltemy says.
Not every orchestra in the country can afford such an investment. In terms of youth education programs, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra programs are the most notable. LA has even dedicated an entire building for its program.
“They’ve been doing it for a long time,” Noltemy says. “They have 3,000 to 4,000 kids.”
As for the Dallas Symphony Young Musicians Program, she hopes to keep it growing. Activating the orchestra for this sort of program is intensive — funding is necessary, musicians become coaches and mentors. But it’s a scalable program according to Noltemy.
“It’s only about $1,500 per kid per school year, so that’s an incredible return on investment,” she says.
Noltemy thinks lack of music education hurts kids and orchestras alike. Without familiarity with the genre, people are less likely to go to the symphony.
“You will never hear anything in a concert hall like ours, where the acoustics are so phenomenal,” she says. “We need to sell that. In a world without music education and the innate interest in sitting for an hour or longer, you have to convince people that this is a good thing to do. It's like a spa for your brain.”
These factors, combined with the rise of distracting technology and at-home entertainment systems, put symphonies like the DSO at a disadvantage according to Noltemy.
“Post-COVID, I think people have really changed their habits, and that has had a detrimental effect on performing arts in general,” she says. “People have made their home more desirable to spend time in. Everybody did it differently. It's not just about having a large home. It's just how you positioned your entertainment space wherever you live in order to make it more compelling and interesting … We never used to compete with staying home with your cool surround-sound system.”
Noltemy will keep pushing for outreach that closes this disconnect, whether through working with local composers or performing in unexpected places like the zoo. As for the DSO’s upcoming performances, she most looks forward to the Great American Songbook Selections in September, conducted by Fabio Luisi, because of the unique opportunity to watch how a European conductor interprets American material.
“I think it's going to be fascinating to see how he puts that together as compared to someone who does that kind of music all the time,” she says.
Until that performance, you can find Noltemy meeting with board members, checking status reports, writing letters, working on fundraising, speaking with musicians, watching rehearsals, working on fundraising some more and attending other concerts — and probably fundraising a little more.
