(CelebrityAccess) — Steve Schmidt, longtime General Manager and Artistic Director of Rochester’s Civic Music department and Riverside Concerts announced plans to retire next month.
Schmidt joined Rochester’s Civic Music Department in 1989 and helped to bring programming such as the Down by the Riverside concert series to life with concerts by artists such as Asleep at the Wheel, Little Joe Y La Familia, The Dixie Chicks, Kansas, Collective Soul, Lucius, Koko Taylor, The Fab Four, and George Thorogood & the Destroyers.
“I want to thank Steven Schmidt for his commitment to the organization and community over the past 32 years. We celebrate what Civic Music has achieved under his leadership and wish him the best as he takes this step to enjoy retirement. In the coming weeks and months we will work with Steve, his team and others to ensure Rochester residents and visitors continue to have access to offerings as we reinvent once again how to provide programming in the future,” said Rochester City Administrator Alison Zelms.
“It has been one of the great joys of my life to lead the City of Rochester Civic Music Department/Riverside Concerts. The department has embarked on a course of “continuous reinvention” and one of the Department’s greatest strengths is that it continues to advance this commitment to
renewal and change. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to serve audiences and artists alike, to delight constituents with music both familiar and new, and to work with the talented and dedicated ensemble that is Team Civic Music and the Civic Music Board,” Schmidt said.
During his tenure with the City of Rochester, Schmidt was presented with the Sally Irvine Ordway award for Commitment, recognizing lifetime achievement, contribution and leadership in the arts and/or culture and nominee for a William Dawson
Award for Programmatic Excellence and Sustained Achievement in Programming, and a Mayor’s Medal of Honor Award for Excellence in City Service.
In addition to serving as the leader of the Civic Music department, he is a touring and recording singer/songwriter/musician.
Following his retirement from his municipal post, Schmidt told CelebrityAccess that he plans to focus his creative energies on his music and to spend more time with his family.
