Concert Hall Manager towards new adventures

After ten years as CEO and artistic director for the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Sten Cranner has announced that he will be leaving his position during the spring of 2024. The concert season 2023-2024 will be his last at the Gothenburg Concert Hall. After a long and successful period, he leaves a thriving organisation.

You’ve only just turned 56 and could very well continue for many years, why stop now?

- This job is fun and exciting, but after ten years in the same position I also long for the chance to create a bit of change in my life and my career. Now is a good time for that. The organisation has coped with the post-pandemic restart in an incredible way – the audience is almost back at the same level as our record year 2019. We are just about to present an outstanding season program focusing on Lasting Impressions. The organisation’s finances are stable, we have a new board in place since the end of March and very good relationships with our owners, Region Västra Götaland, and our partners. After tours being cancelled due to the pandemic, we can look forward to several excellent projects taking the orchestra to Stockholm, Hamburg, Brussels, Bucharest, and Vienna during 2023. I feel that I can leave an organisation to be proud of and let someone else take it from there.

What are you most proud of?

- That I have had the chance to be a part of this organisation for such a long time and that I have been given renewed trust to contribute no less than three times: First as orchestra manager in 2002. Then as planning manager in 2010, after my years as CEO at the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. And then as CEO and artistic director in Gothenburg from 2014.

- During the last ten years we have been able to realise an extensive renovation of the Concert Hall, crowned by the new Rieger Concert Hall Organ inaugurated in 2021. Our digital concert hall, the GSOplay, has found both its form and audience. Our children and youth activities have developed into one of the world’s foremost, while having a huge impact. We have been able to carry out several cutting-edge artistic projects and start important collaborations with Chief Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, as well as First Guest Conductors Barbara Hannigan and Christoph Eschenbach. The fact that we can take our fantastic orchestra on tour again and meet audiences both at home and internationally after such a difficult challenge as the pandemic, makes me proud. But also, that we have a stable economy and good relations with our important partners. Most recently, for example, the Sten A Olsson Foundation joining as a new main partner for a period of four years.

What will you do now?

- The pandemic and the restart have been demanding times, so first I will give myself some time to rest. I look forward to that. Then I will try to keep all options open.

- I have had the privilege of working in different management positions for incredible institutions for twenty years. Before that I was a freelance musician, project manager and producer in Oslo, a city characterised by great musical diversity. I had the opportunity to work with the best musicians in Norway and Sweden, in all genres from jazz to experimental contemporary music. That gave a deep understanding of what a viable professional culture means for a society. An insight that has only deepened during my years as head of an institution. Scandinavian music life is dependent on the synergy of two worlds – the institutions and the independent professional music scene. I’m so grateful for all that I have experienced and learned in the process. Now I hope that I can pay that forward and return to being a resource for the independent culture in Sweden and Norway once more. But first I will finish my work with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and enjoy the coming season before passing the baton to the next person.

Sten Cranner will leave the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in the spring of 2024. The search for his successor starts now.

- We are losing a person with great commitment and solid knowledge now that Sten chooses to move on, says Ingrid Andreae, chairperson of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra board. We are happy to have him on for the rest of the year, so that we can be well placed to do the tough job of finding his successor.

For further information, please contact:

Ingrid Andreae, chairperson of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra board, +46 705 85 29 11

Sten Cranner, CEO & artistic manager, +46 31-726 53 07