“After almost 25 years of shaping the Coachella Valley’s performing-arts agenda, Mitch Gershenfeld will just fade away this summer, like an old soldier of the desert cultural wars.
There will be no send-off at the McCallum Theatre. The performing-arts center he has led with multiple titles gave him a farewell party when he first retired in 2019. He returned twice at the behest of former McCallum board chairman Harold Matzner after two successors didn’t work out. Now he’s “slipping quietly away” at the end of August, he says.
His title has changed from “president and CEO” to “artistic director.” New board chairman Garry Kief has named chief financial officer Robert McConnaughey interim president. Gershenfeld said someone else will negotiate the contracts for acts he selected for 2026…”
[Read the full article at cvindependent.com]