Yellow Barn creates new Managing Director position, appoints Maria Basescu
On the eve of its 50th Anniversary season, Yellow Barn has filled a new senior-level staff position. This coming September, Maria Basescu will assume the role of Managing Director, joining Executive Director Catherine Stephan and Artistic Director Seth Knopp in positioning Yellow Barn for its next 50 years.
As a creative partner, Ms. Basescu will have an essential position at one of the most highly regarded chamber music centers in the world. Seth Knopp, appointed by founders David and Janet Wells in 1997, said, “For many years Yellow Barn has had the pleasure to work with Maria at Next Stage, Putney’s treasured performance venue. Her deeply emotional connection to the arts, her belief that lives can be changed when we communicate through them, and her unique ability to turn that connection and belief into a meaningful reality, will have a profound impact on the work we do at Yellow Barn.”
Ms. Basescu completes a staff restructuring for this venerable arts institution based in southeastern Vermont, with a national agenda and a growing international presence. “Maria is the ideal person for this new position,” said Catherine Stephan. “She brings significant insight and understanding to Yellow Barn, together with an innate ability to manage the scope and geographic breadth of our year-round programs.” In addition to an array of responsibilities that are critical to the daily operation of Yellow Barn’s programs (its 50-year-old summer festival; the Young Artists Program in June; the first Artist Residencies program in the United States for performing musicians; and national tours with its one-of-a-kind traveling stage, Yellow Barn Music Haul), Ms. Basescu will contribute directly to the implementation of Yellow Barn’s strategic plan, including taking Yellow Barn Music Haul to scale and establishing an artists’ residence and center for music and social dialogue.
Maria Basescu has been the founding Executive Director for Next Stage Arts Project since 2013. Jim Johnson, Chair of the NSAP Board of Directors, said, "Maria’s work at Next Stage has been instrumental in positioning the organization for the next phase of growth. She was our first Executive Director, and guided us through the modernization of 15 Kimball Hill and helped dramatically expand the reach of Next Stage programming. We wish Maria well in her new role, and look forward to our continued collaborations with Yellow Barn."
Ms. Basescu’s deep experience in arts administration includes serving as President of Annapurna Concerts, Public Relations Director for Emerson College’s Division of Performing Arts and Associate Director of Media and Public Relations for the Boston Mayor’s Office of Business and Cultural Development. She has also served as a senior executive in communications and external affairs for Northern Berkshire Healthcare, the Brattleboro Retreat and Marlboro College, and as Senior Advisor with the strategic communications firm Denterlein.
Ms. Basescu has a B.A. in Sociology from Dartmouth College, is a graduate of the Snelling Center for Government’s Vermont Leadership Institute and a member of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals.
Said Basescu, “I am thrilled and honored to be joining the outstanding Yellow Barn team. I look forward to supporting the creative passion, excellence and growing international reputation of this exceptional organization.”