Susan Miller Kotses, a strategic arts leader, creates meaningful and impactful experiences for people of all ages and races and all abilities by leveraging the knowledge and experience gained from 16 years as a leader in education and community engagement, as well as nearly three decades as a professional singer and educator. A passionate and effective advocate for the power of the arts to transform lives, Kotses believes that the arts are a vehicle for change, not just a destination in themselves.
Kotses currently serves as Vice President of Education and Community Engagement with Pacific Symphony. Kotses built and leads a dedicated, high-performing team that each year meets and exceeds goals for participant satisfaction and impact, while annually serving over 60,000 constituents, engaging 1,000 volunteers, and training and deploying 50 teaching artists and content creators.
Co-creating programs with community partners is central to Kotses’ work. She has led her team at Pacific Symphony in achieving positive impacts through work in K-12 schools, large- and small-scale free public concerts, and sensory-friendly performances for seniors with dementia and children on the autism spectrum. With her team and Pacific Symphony’s community partners, Kotses curated and produced cultural festivals and multi-disciplinary concert experiences. Kotses also led efforts to feature Pacific Symphony’s partners prominently in the Symphony’s Family Musical Morning series, attended by 10,000 people annually.
In 2012, Kotses became the producer and script co-writer for Pacific Symphony’s annual Opera for Kids!, presented on the Symphony’s Family series, providing countless students with their first professional audition and performance experience, highlighting local professional singers, and introducing 12,000 children and families to opera for the first time.
Kotses served as a leader in Pacific Symphony’s diversity, equity, and inclusion work, and strategic planning process, and was central to Pacific Symphony securing significant multi-year grants to support education and community engagement work.
Kotses joined Pacific Symphony in 2007, holding positions as Director of Class Act, Director of Education and Community Engagement, and Senior Director of Education, prior to being promoted to Vice President of Education and Community Engagement in 2015.
Previously, Kotses served as Interim Artistic Department Manager for Pittsburgh Opera while earning a Master of Arts Management degree from Carnegie Mellon University.
Kotses holds a Bachelor and Masters of Music in Voice Performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, and, for many years, was a professional freelance singer and music educator based in Paris, France, performing regularly with the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Opéra Comique, and the Thêatre du Chatêlet as well as at England’s Aldeburgh Festival, Greece’s Hellenic Festival, The Grand Theatre of Shanghai, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
A voice teacher with more than 25 years of experience, Kotses has taught at community music schools in both France and the United States, as well as privately. Kotses, who has always made singing a central part of her life, is currently a Cantorial Soloist at Temple Judea of Laguna Woods and performs in concerts as time allows. Kotses lives in Tustin, California with her husband and two Yorkshire Terriers.
