OCALA, FL (352today.com) – It didn’t take long for the Ocala Symphony Orchestra and the Reilly Arts Center to name a new Executive Director.
Natalie McComb will succeed Pamela Calero Wardell who served in that role for close to 10 years.
The Board of Directors announced earlier this month that Wardell is moving to Jacksonville to take on a new role as Senior Director of Development with that city’s symphony starting February 1.
McComb’s name may be familiar to people in the area as she has been active in fundraising for the United Way of Marion County. Most recently, she served as Vice President of the Ocala Metro Chamber and Economic Partnership Foundation.
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McComb says she is very excited about this new role. “It is truly an honor to have the opportunity to lead such an incredibly talented team and organization,” she said. “Their passion, grit and creativity have cemented the Reilly and its entities as premier destinations for music, performing arts and cinema for our region.”
Matthew Wardell, who has been the Reilly’s CEO since it began in 2015, is stepping down from that role in this transition but will continue to serve as both Music Director and Conductor of the Ocala Symphony Orchestra and as Artistic Advisor to the Reilly Arts Center.
“While Matt will be stepping down as CEO as part of this transition and the Wardells’ move to Jacksonville, I am absolutely delighted to announce that he has enthusiastically agreed to stay on in his roles as Music Director and Conductor of the Ocala Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2009,” said R.J. Jenkins, President of the Board of Directors of the Reilly Arts Center in a release earlier this month. “It is hard for me to put into words how profound a calming effect this has had on me as I consider this transition, and I am grateful, both to Matt and to Pamela, for conceiving of an arrangement that affords Pamela the freedom to pursue this opportunity while also ensuring key institutional memory and consistency for our organization, our donors, and our patrons.”
Adam Volpe, who has worked closely with Wardell, is being promoted from his role as Director of the Marion Theatre to Senior Director of Operations and Programming. Volpe spent the last four years with the Reilly team developing systems and securing talent for the Marion Theatre.
