Mitchell Korn

Mitchell Korn is the recently retired (August 2022) Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University Senior Lecturer for Arts Management where he taught courses on musician career preparedness, creating nonprofits and social entrepreneurships, careers in arts administration and serving communities through music.

Korn’s recent projects for the field include digital arts content development for The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts. Mitchell has also rejoined Edify Technologies, maker of MusiQuest, as VP Education.

He has served as Consultant to Fulbright Scholars and the U.S. State Department. He is also a Bard College Senior Fellow and a former Harvard University Graduate School of Education and Yale School of Music lecturer.

Mitchell recently completed the strategic plan for The Nashville Ballet, and also concluded a successful search for The Nashville Ballet's COO. Recent plans: The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, and the new Cleveland School of The Arts.

The Wall Street Journal has called him a "one-man arts education industry" and Symphony Magazine cited him as a "music education guru."​

As a young man, he toured extensively for nearly 2 decades performing on solo 12-string guitar and composing for his NY-based ensemble, creating scores for numerous dance companies and documentary films.

He has been a leading arts and arts education advisor for decades. He is credited with creating, designing and implementing the nation's most important and sustainable arts education initiatives including San Francisco Symphony’s Adventures in Music (celebrating its 32nd anniversary), New York's Annenberg Initiative (25th year), Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education -CAPE (26th year), The Cleveland Orchestra’s Learning Through Music (25th year), and many more. His extensive work for philanthropy includes the Heinz Endowment, MacArthur Foundation, Annenberg Foundation, GE Fund, and Dayton Hudson Foundation.

Mitchell is the recipient of numerous awards and tributes including Parents Magazine “As They Grow” Award, honoring his efforts in "making the world a safer, healthier, and happier place for children."

Founder’s Note:

With decades upon decades of high-impact, mission-driven work in both arts education and social services, Mitchell’s reputation in the nonprofit world truly precedes him. His nonprofit course at Vanderbilt University was one of the core inspirations behind our very existence and mission. It still feels unreal to have him in our corner, and words cannot fully express how much his mentorship means to us.