HOUSTON (August 12, 2024) – The Houston Symphony has announced that its Chief Financial Officer, Elizabeth S. Condic, is assuming the role of Interim Executive Director and CEO beginning this October 2024. John Mangum remains CEO through the end of September, when he leaves to assume the role of General Director, President, and CEO of Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Condic has been a strong leader since her arrival at the Symphony in November 2017. Her work has been vital in enabling the Symphony to navigate through the many months of physical and financial rebuilding following Hurricane Harvey, as well as the global COVID-19 pandemic. She has a broad understanding of the organization and its financials, and contributed to the new strategic plan launched by the organization in 2024. She is a seasoned leader and is known as a team player, and plans to rely on Chief Operations Officer Vicky Dominguez, Senior Director of Marketing Alex Soares, Senior Directors of Development Christine Ann Stevens and Timothy Dillow, and Director of Education and Community Engagement Allison Conlan as close collaborators during this transition.
The Houston Symphony has launched an extensive search for a permanent Executive Director and CEO. The Catherine French Group, a national executive search firm focused on the arts, has been selected for this process, guided by a Search Committee led by former Board Chair Janet Clark, and including representatives of the Symphony Board, administrative staff, and musicians.
About Elizabeth Condic
Elizabeth Condic, a native Houstonian, has twenty years of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) experience, both at the Houston Symphony and other not-for-profit and for-profit organizations. She joined the Houston Symphony as CFO in 2017, overseeing finance, human resources, and information technology. Elizabeth has worked closely with the finance and audit committees of the Symphony Board, as well as the Houston Symphony Endowment Board. During her tenure, Elizabeth participated in the 2030 Strategic planning process, the Symphony’s DEI project team, and led the finance team’s work to successfully obtain federal funding during the COVID pandemic.
Prior to joining the Symphony, Elizabeth worked in the nonprofit sector at two universities, holding the role of Vice President for Finance and CFO at the University of St. Thomas (UST) and the University of Mary where she served on the president’s cabinet and oversaw activities related to finance, treasury, accounting, purchasing, endowment investment, and human resource functions, among others. Elizabeth provided financial advisory plans related to the construction of new buildings and the extensive remodel of existing facilities. Elizabeth’s background also includes working in public accounting and with NASA aerospace subcontractors.
Elizabeth holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and a Master’s degree in Accounting, both from University of Houston, Clear Lake, and completed the Institute for Educational Management (IEM) program at Harvard University. She is a Certified Public Accountant.
About the Houston Symphony
Under Music Director Juraj Valčuha, the Houston Symphony continues its second century inspiring and engaging a large and diverse audience in Houston and beyond through exceptional musical performances, and creating enduring impact in the Houston community. One of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, the Symphony held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston on June 21, 1913. Today, with an operating budget of $40.7 million, the full-time ensemble of professional musicians presents more than 130 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Traditionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s three Community-Embedded Musicians also offer over 1,000 community-based performances each year at various schools, community centers, hospitals, and churches, annually reaching more than 200,000 people in Greater Houston.
After suspending concert activities in March 2020, the Symphony successfully completed a full 2020–21 season with in-person audiences and weekly livestreams of each performance, making it one of the only orchestras in the world to do so. The Houston Symphony remains committed to livestreaming its 2024-25 Season to a broad audience in over forty-five countries and all 50 states, one of few American orchestras dedicated to transmitting live performances to a sizeable audience outside its home city through this technology. The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Koch International Classics, Naxos, RCA Red Seal, Telarc, Virgin Classics, and, most recently, Dutch recording label Pentatone. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at the 60th annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera Recording category. The Symphony’s most recent recordings include a Pentatone release in January 2022 of its world premiere performances of Jimmy López Bellido’s Aurora and Ad Astra, and a Naxos release in July 2023 of its world premiere performance of Jennifer Higdon’s Duo Duel.
Media Contacts:
Eric Skelly: 713.337.8560, eric.skelly@houstonsymphony.org