Performing Arts Center CEO Exiting

Castroverde Moskalenko came to the center one year after it opened.

The chief executive officer of The Center for the Performing Arts and the Great American Songbook Foundation in Carmel is leaving. Tania Castroverde Moskalenko has accepted the job as CEO of the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Castroverde Moskalenko has been on the job in Carmel for about four years and officials credit her with stabilizing spending, creating a strategic plan and expanding the center’s reach. She says "I have truly enjoyed my time at the Center and will miss the many colleagues and supporters that have become friends during my four years here. It has been an honor and privilege to work with true visionaries such as Michael Feinstein and Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard who were instrumental in the creation of these organizations. I am very proud of the progress we have made together as an organization and am glad to have been a part of the milestone 5th season we just presented. I know that I leave the Center in a much more secure position poised for solid growth in the years to come. The Center and the Foundation are in the capable hands of a talented and caring interim leader and boards of directors."

Krieg DeVault LLP Partner Jeffrey McDermott, who serves as Songbook Foundation chair, will lead the organizations on an interim basis, with a leadership transition set to be finalized before the 2016-2017 season "is in full swing." He joined the board in 2010, the year before the center opened. Eric Payne, who is chairman of the center’s board of directors, says "I’ve worked closely with Jeff for years on various projects and I know that our board joins me in expressing confidence in him to lead the Center’s mission. His professional background in law and management, coupled with his passion for what we do here at the Center, make him uniquely qualified to serve in this role."

In its most recent annual report, the center reported a budget surplus of around $300,000, taking in $8.7 million. The center has been profitable the past three years.

McDermott calls it an "exciting time" for the center and he will remain a partner at the law firm while taking on the new roles.