The Frick Appoints Jeremy Ney as Head of Music and Performance
New York (April 23, 2024) — The Frick Collection shared today the appointment of Jeremy Ney as its Head of Music and Performance. In this newly created position within the curatorial department, Ney will oversee the museum’s music and performance programming, which will resume after the reopening of its renovated Fifth Avenue home. Building on the Frick’s longstanding tradition of presenting excellence in classical music, Ney will manage the institution’s seasonal series, taking advantage of a newly constructed 220-seat auditorium designed by Selldorf Architects. He will also explore opportunities to present music in the Frick’s galleries and other public spaces. Ney joins the Frick’s staff as of June 3, 2024.
Comments Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, “We are thrilled that Jeremy Ney will serve as the next—and only fourth—director of a program with a long and remarkable history. With our forthcoming reopening, he will have the exciting task of re-establishing our music program, while developing and implementing a unified vision for performance that will enhance the experiences we offer in our galleries. His commitment to exploring connections between art and performance will find a welcome home at the Frick, where we look forward to new enthusiasts and patrons joining our loyal and discerning audiences.”
Ney comes to New York from Washington, D.C., with nearly fifteen years of experience in music and wider cultural non-profit programming and management. For the majority of the past thirteen years, he has served as Senior Director of Phillips Music at The Phillips Collection, curating and managing the institution’s 83-year-old concert series. (Like the Frick, the Phillips established a classical music series in the 1930s within the former residence of a collector interested in fostering appreciation of the fine arts and kindred subjects.)
He complemented the Phillips’s core of chamber music performance with thematic concert projects that explored connections between painting and music and dovetailed with the museum’s holdings and special exhibitions. He also animated the program by commissioning new music, for which he successfully fundraised. His emphasis on balancing the institution’s traditional offerings with innovative programming and fresh voices attracted new audiences, as did his pivoting of the Phillips’s pandemic-era digital programming to a hybrid strategy that supports both in-person and online audiences, dramatically extending the reach of the institution’s series.
From 2014 to 2017, Ney was Program Director at Halcyon Arts Lab in Washington, D.C., where he led the creation of a fellowship for emerging artists across disciplines. He also developed a community-focused arts mentorship program and oversaw an annual twenty-concert chamber music series. Ney received his Master’s of Music in Musicology with distinction from King’s College London, focusing his dissertation research on the complex relationship between music and painting from historical and contemporary perspectives.
States Ney, “This is a unique moment for The Frick Collection, and I am honored to lead the revitalization of the museum’s historic music series following the return to 1 East 70th Street. The new auditorium will provide an incredible space for performance, allowing audiences to reconnect with the storied core classical program at the Frick, while also providing greater flexibility to present a broad mix of musical styles. As someone who has spent years exploring the relationship between music and the visual arts, I am eager to explore rich possibilities that the Frick’s permanent collection and special exhibitions offer for musical response. I have been deeply impressed by the intellectual integrity and quality of everything at the Frick, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to shape how music can continue to contribute to the institution’s vibrant cultural offering.”
ABOUT CONCERTS AT THE FRICK COLLECTION
Since 1938, the Frick’s concert series has delighted listeners with the finest in keyboard recitals, chamber groups, and groundbreaking early music ensembles. (The series has been on hiatus since 2020 and will resume following the completion of the Frick’s renovation project.)
The Frick has played host to many of the past century’s greatest soloists and ensembles, among them the legendary instrumentalists Wanda Landowska, Gregor Piatigorsky, Artur Schnabel, and Joseph Szigeti; vocalists Kathleen Battle, Peter Pears, Elisabeth Söderström, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Anne Sofie von Otter; and the Amadeus, Budapest, Guarneri, and Tokyo quartets. The program’s prestige also derives from its presentation of New York debuts by international musicians. Notable examples include the Bennewitz Quartet, Ian Bostridge, the Carmina Quartet, Sarah Connolly, Mahan Esfahani, Gerald Finley, Fretwork, Matthias Goerne, Wolfgang Holzmair, Felicity Lott, Mark Padmore, Yevgeny Sudbin, the Jacques Thibaud String Trio, Pieter Wispelwey, and Thomas Zehetmair. The Frick has also become an important venue for performers of period instruments, such as Richard Egarr, Andrew Manze, Quatuor Mosaïques, and Jordi Savall with Hespèrion XXI.
The Frick’s esteemed series was broadcast for many decades on WNYC and WQXR radio, which have a deep and rich archive of more than eighty years’ worth of the institution’s concerts.
For more information, please visit frick.org/programs/concerts.