Steve Wenig took over as executive director of the Spokane Symphony in January.

Wenig brings over two decades of arts administration experience to the Spokane Symphony, most recently serving as vice president and general manager of the Oregon Symphony for 10 years.

Prior to his leadership role in Portland, Oregon, Wenig spent a dozen years working at the Houston Symphony, a tenure that included three years as director of community partnerships. 

Why did you end up pursuing a career in the arts?

Music has always been an important role in my life. There's a saying out there that “you don't choose music, music chooses you,” and it's exactly right, and it chose me.

I was a former trumpet player, and I had a brief career as a trumpet player, and then the more and more I did that, the more I realized my talents may lie somewhere else.

I was auditioning for orchestras. I hadn't quite found that great opportunity auditioning. It's incredibly difficult to get a job as a professional musician. That's why the level in a group like Spokane Symphony is so, so high. We do an audition with 40 people, only one person can run the gauntlet and get the job. 

So, I tried doing that for a while, and then I just thought my talents lied somewhere else, mostly in amplifying and supporting and administrating all the great things that music can do for the community, both in the hall and outside of the hall.

How has your passion for music served you in these various operational roles?

I think there's two great benefits of music. And one is, like all great art, we learn about ourselves, the world around us, and each other through music. Music describes what words can't and that music reveals the world to us. So that's the artistic benefit.

But then there's the instrumental benefits of music. I really think that it's almost like a toolbox of instrumental opportunities. We go deep in music education, not because we're interested in creating the next professional musicians, but because we know your life is better with an instrument in your hand.

Student success and student achievements will be propelled. Study after study shows this, that the band, orchestra, and choir kids do well in school. It brings together, builds discipline, teamwork, social emotional development, and most importantly, it creates grit. Those are the skills I think that this next workforce needs.

Music brings people together. You go to a concert hall, there's an aisle, but there's no left side or right side of the of the concert. It's not like a sporting event where it's one home team and a visitor team. We're all there coming together for a shared experience.

I think finally, and this is what I'm super excited about, music heals. We know about the healing properties of music, and there are so many programs that we have in the community that aren't an artistic product, but they're designed for a health outcome.

I feel like the Spokane Symphony can do a great job meeting the needs of a community, not on stage in a concert hall, but in a much more meaningful, personal way in the community.

If you were at the concerts this weekend, you heard me talk to the audience, and I said, “In the concert hall, in schools, in health care settings, libraries and shelters, and memory care facilities, the Spokane Symphony brings the power of music to life for all of our community.” 

Why Spokane? What was it about the city and the Spokane Symphony that attracted you?

I'm looking to find a place where I can have a real impact. I felt that in this particular symphony, I would have success.

I think first, one of the big reasons has to do with the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox. Orchestras the size of Spokane rarely own and operate a concert hall. In my previous other orchestras, which were 4x and 6x the size of our budget, we were renters. Those orchestras rented a municipal building, much like the Spokane Symphony, I believe, used to rent the Opera House before it was the (First Interstate Center for the Arts).

We now have the opportunity to leverage that hall and create other revenue opportunities. There are all these other activities when the orchestra is not working, musicians aren't working, that you can generate.

In the last fiscal year, the Spokane Symphony generated high six figures just by owning this venue. So, there's a revenue piece.

But also, I would say, owning and managing the hall gives us the opportunity to craft the customer experience. By the time they walk in the door, to the intermission, from the time they have a drink, when they have to go the bathroom, everything we feel we could inform and elevate.

Secondly, I think this staff, coming out of the pandemic, it's very lean, but they were able to operationalize and activate all these great things over the last few years. Even in difficult times, they were able to grow.

I have some stats here. They tripled the number of middle and high schoolers they were serving. They expanded beyond the Spokane Public Schools to Central Valley, Mead, and Cheney. They were able to really expand their footprint in the schools.

The staff is a very lean staff, committed staff. The grit that the staff has is so, so impressive. And I can't wait to work alongside them and grow them, and I just have to recognize all the great work that they've been able to activate under very lean, smart fiscal discipline with limited resources.

I would say the third thing that drew me here is James and the musicians. Our music director, James Lowe, is a figure in the community. The orchestra loves him. He loves the orchestra. There's just a great relationship. And I kind of knew after just a few minutes of meeting James, I thought — and I hope he thought — this is going to be a great partnership.

James lives here. He cares deeply about this community, and he's out there engaging with the audience, engaging with a community, and that's very exciting for me. 

Is there anything you would like to add?

I would just add one more thing. Because you're a business journal, there's a very basic one. There's a strong business case for what the symphony does economically for downtown and the region. I think the Spokane Symphony and the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox are economic force multipliers.

I know firsthand from Portland how bad we need people to return to a downtown district, and a symphony orchestra and a concert hall do just that. Studies after studies show that every $1 spent on the arts returns $7, $8, and even $12 in local economic activity. Downtown businesses, shops, restaurant, bars all benefit.

Moving from a no-tax state to a sales tax state, that's even better for what the Spokane Symphony generates for its community, economically.

I'm also excited that the theater seems to be the anchor of that side of downtown. There's The Bing, there's the Knitting Factory, there's a theater district there, and it's anchored by the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox. I think that's really exciting.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.