2026 Music Leadership Forum: Strengthening Bonds Across the Sector

Lee Bynum (they/them) is Distinguished Lecturer and Director of the MA Program in Arts Administration at Baruch College, and has worked in a range of roles over the course of their career, including as Executive Director of Maestra Music, Chief Education Officer at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Vice President of Impact at Minnesota Opera, and Senior Associate in the Higher Education Program at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  A composer, educator, philanthropic strategist, fundraiser, arts administrator, and scholar whose work spans philanthropy, higher education, nonprofit leadership, fundraising strategy, cultural policy, and contemporary artistic practice. Across more than two decades of professional leadership, Dr. Bynum has worked at the intersection of institutional transformation, public engagement, ethical leadership, artistic production, and philanthropic strategy, with particular focus upon the ways nonprofit and cultural organizations build public trust, sustain mission-driven work, and navigate periods of social and institutional change.

Danielle Fosler-Lussier is Professor of Musicology at Ohio State University and incoming President of the American Musicological Society (AMS). She completed her Ph.D. at the University of California Berkeley in 1999. Her research areas include diplomacy, Cold War politics, and women in U.S. musical organizations. She is the author of Music on the Move (Michigan, 2020) Music in America’s Cold War Diplomacy (California, 2015), and Music Divided: Bartók’s Legacy in Cold War Culture (California, 2007). She has published Database of Cultural Presentations, http://musicdiplomacy.org/database (2015) and “‘What can the AMS do?’: The Scholarly Society and the Academic Jobs Crisis,” Musicology Now (2019). She received AMS Honorary Member (2023), AMS Teaching Award (2021), Assn. of Research Libraries, TOME Open Monograph Initiative Subvention (2018), AMS Publication Subvention (2014), NEH Fellowship (2011–12), Princeton Society of Fellows (2000–03), and AMS 50 Dissertation Fellowship (1998–99). She has served as the Principal Investigator and Grant Development Advisor of the Many Musics of America Project (2023–), AMS Vice President (2020–22), and Chair of the Committee on Career-Related Issues (2019–22).

Melissa Ngan is President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Composers Orchestra. She cultivates personal and organizational growth through creative acts and collaborative practices. She has over fifteen years of experience in civic practice-based program design; arts leadership; professional development and entrepreneurship in the arts; and as a professional flutist. Melissa was previously Founder and CEO of the Chicago-based Fifth House Ensemble. Active as a speaker and educator, she has served on the faculties of the Eastman School of Music, DePauw University, Carthage College, and DePaul University, and has presented at Opera America, Chamber Music America, and College Music Society. She has consulted with major arts institutions, resulting in bold new directions in civic practice and emerging artist training; recent partners include The Cleveland Orchestra, The Cleveland Institute of Music, and San Francisco Opera.

James L. Shulman is the President of the Rockefeller Archive Center, a major repository and research center dedicated to the study of philanthropy and its impact. Previously Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS); Financial and Administrative Officer of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and, for 16 years, President of Artstor, which works with museums, artists, libraries, and teachers at all levels to use digital technology to enhance scholarship, teaching and learning in the arts and associated fields. Shulman holds a PhD in Renaissance Studies from Yale University, and has published widely on higher education, philanthropy, cultural history, and the humanities. In 1998, he collaborated with William Bowen and Derek Bok on The Shape of the River: Long-term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions, and in 2001 he collaborated with William Bowen again on The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values. His most recent book, The Synthetic University, published by Princeton University Press in 2023, was recognized as a Forbes Best Higher Education Book.

Bradley Strauchen-Scherer is Curator in the Department of Musical Instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she led the renovation of the five permanent music galleries. She is the curator of Musical Bodies, a major marquee exhibition on view at the Met during summer/fall 2026. Through her exhibitions, teaching, and writing, Bradley pushes the boundaries of traditional organology and explores the intersections of music, instruments, art, and society. She has written on topics ranging from wind instruments to timbre, historically informed performance, concert life in nineteenth-century London, collections history, and museology. Publications include contributions to the Grove dictionaries, articles in various journals, conference proceedings and exhibition catalogues, and the books Musical Bodies and Musical Instruments: Highlights of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bradley has held various positions in the American Musical Instrument Society, the Historic Brass Society, and ICOM Music. She currently serves on the boards of the Galpin Society, the American Classical Orchestra, and the American Musicological Society (AMS).