Courtenay Casey
Senior Director, Business Development
Courtenay Casey (she/her/hers) is a strategic arts executive who firmly believes that the arts can underscore and strengthen our collective human dignity. With over two decades of experience, she has created partnerships with more than a dozen prominent arts organizations and collaborated with numerous dynamic performing artists to craft programs that resonate with their core values and missions. Courtenay champions flexible, empowering processes conducive to artistic and operational advancement, employing a people-centric ethos.
At ABA, she serves as Senior Director, Business Development. Previously, she was the Executive Director at the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*), a pioneering performing arts collective comprising 18 distinguished musicians, singers, dancers, composers, and producers—including recipients of prestigious accolades such as the MacArthur Genius Award, Grammy award, and Sphinx Medal of Honor. At AMOC*, Courtenay streamlined production methodologies, formalized best practices, and generated a 10% increase in new foundation gifts. Notable achievements include establishing an annual partnership with the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, featuring acclaimed artist Julia Bullock's "El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered" concert, drawing an annual audience of 1,000. Additionally, she instituted parity/equity payment structures for the production team, devised an equitable commission model for the Company, implemented a comprehensive caregiving initiative for all productions, and engineered a value-centric onboarding system for freelance producers.
Before her tenure at AMOC*, Courtenay served as Chief Operating Officer at the Young People's Chorus of New York City (YPC), an organization renowned for its commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion through artistic excellence. Joining the organization in March 2020, she played a pivotal role in facilitating continued music-making with 2,000 children, expanding audience reach to over 1 million engagements on Facebook, premiering 15 new choral commissions by leading composers alongside a documentary film shared as an art installation, and orchestrating the safe return of a team of 25 staff members and 600 children to rehearsal rooms during the pandemic.
In 2015, Courtenay became a founding director at National Sawdust (NS), a vibrant music venue based in Brooklyn, NY, where she spearheaded its evolution from concept to reality. Courtenay was instrumental in transforming NS into a celebrated venue, hosting over 250 concerts annually. She curated its inaugural season, devised its flagship artist residency program, initiated the acclaimed Summer Labs program for local musicians, and introduced the Classical Sunday series with BIPOC artists.
Courtenay holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the New England Conservatory of Music. Originally from Bethesda, MD, she initially pursued a career as an opera singer before discovering her true passion for strategic planning and creative programming within the performing arts realm. Courtenay resides in Hastings-On-Hudson, NY, with her husband and ten-year-old daughter.