Kathleen Felder

Kathleen Felder joined the Wexner Center for the Arts in 2023 as a producer in the performing arts department and currently serves as its interim head of music programming. She produces music, theater, dance, and multidisciplinary programs and works with the performing arts team to curate culturally relevant events with a focus on contemporary music and the jazz spectrum. As a member of the Wexner Center’s leadership team, she advises the executive director on strategic planning and center goals.
 
Felder has built a career in the nonprofit performing arts world as a producer, tour manager, educator, and arts administrator. She spent many years managing touring operations for Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, working with hundreds of venues including the Sydney Opera House, the Barbican Centre, and the Hollywood Bowl. She also served as general manager for large-scale symphonic collaborations with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
 
During the pandemic Felder produced independently, working on such projects as Etienne Charles’s multimedia commission San Juan Hill: A New York Story, which reopened David Geffen Hall with the New York Philharmonic in 2022. She also held an interim position at University of Iowa’s Hancher Auditorium leading programming and public engagement and working to expand programming for new and diverse audiences.
 
Felder holds both a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music from Michigan State University, where she focused on double bass performance and jazz studies and studied under world-renowned bassist and educator Rodney Whitaker.