Washington, DC

Russell Willis Taylor has extensive senior experience in strategic business planning, financial analysis and planning, and all areas of operational management. Educated in England and America, she served as director of development for the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art before returning to England in 1985 at the invitation of the English National Opera (ENO) to establish the Company's first fund-raising department. During this time, she also lectured extensively at graduate programs of arts and business management throughout Britain. From 1997 through 2000, she rejoined the ENO as executive director.

Mrs. Taylor has held a wide range of managerial and Board posts in the commercial and nonprofit sectors including the advertising agency DMBB; head of corporate relations at Stoll Moss; director of The Arts Foundation; special advisor to the Heritage Board, Singapore; chief executive of Year of Opera and Music Theatre (1997); judge for Creative Britons; and lecturer on business issues and arts administration. She received the Garrett Award for an outstanding contribution to the arts in Britain, the only American to be recognized in this way, and has most recently served on the boards of A&B (Arts and Business), Cambridge Arts Theatre, Arts Research Digest, and Society of London Theatre. Currently serving on the advisory boards of The University Musical Society of the University of Michigan, the 21st Century Trust, The Curtis Institute, and the Center for Nonprofit Excellence in Charlottesville, Mrs. Taylor is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

New York, NY

Bolz Center alumnus David Bither has been Senior Vice President of New York-based Nonesuch Records since 1995.  He has brought to the label many of its international and popular music artists including the Black Keys, Wilco, Emmylou Harris, Laurie Anderson, Ry Cooder, Brian Wilson, Natalie Merchant, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Low Anthem, Allen Toussaint, Youssou N'Dour, Cesaria Evora and the London-based world music label World Circuit Records, home to the Buena Vista Social Club and its offshoots, Toumani Diabate, Ali Farke Toure and others.   

Bither spent eight years at Elektra Records from 1986-1994, first as Vice President of International and then Vice President of Marketing before becoming Senior Vice President and General Manager of the label.  Prior to working in the recorded music business he was Director of Corporate Development at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and Director of Corporate Communications at Warner Communications Inc.  He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1978 with an MA in Arts Administration; he has a BS in Journalism from the University of Illinois-Urbana.  

Minneapolis, MN

Philip Bither has been Walker Art Center's Senior Curator of Performing Arts since April 1997. He has overseen significant expansion of the Performing Arts program, including the building of the McGuire Theater, an acclaimed new theatrical space within the Walker expansion (opened April 2005), the raising of the program's first commissioning/programming endowment, the commissioning of more than 100 new works in dance, music and performance, and the annual presentation/residency support of dozens of contemporary performing arts creators, established and emerging. 

In September 2008, he oversaw the Walker's nationally acclaimed production of Merce Cunningham and John Cage's monumental Ocean in the Rainbow Quarry in Waite Park, MN. Prior to this, he served as Director of Programming for the Flynn Center and Artistic Director of the Discover Jazz Festival (Burlington, VT) from April 1988 to April 1997. From 1984-1988, he was Associate Director/Music Curator of the Next Wave Festival at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).