An interview with our new Executive Director (November 2005)
New SFFCM Executive Director Dominique Pelletey is a boldly creative photographer/filmmaker, with tremendous organizational and conceptual talent. A native of France, he studied and subsequently worked for many years in Holland. Besides successfully showing his own work, Dominique served on a national panel developing the Dutch government’s art policy, and actively supported the artistic culture of the country. He drew up an artistic plan, a budget, and a strategic plan for an artist space in Amsterdam which as a result, has thrived over the last dozen years. He founded a nationally distributed newspaper which connects 64 independent Dutch art centers. Of his creative work he explains: “I make photographic and film installations staged with people and objects to create stories,” which have been exhibited throughout Europe, Canada and recently, in San Francisco.
He admits he came slowly and late to “classical” music. After years of developing his art and his administrative skills in Holland, in 1994 he went to the Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta, Canada for a residency in photography and new technology. “I started to listen to the musicians there. I had never heard anything like it in my life. I was very attracted to the contemporary pieces. I understood what the composers were trying to say.”
A cellist also resident at Banff sent him a list of classical composers to listen to when he returned home. With a wonderfully stocked recording library in Amsterdam, he began avidly listening to chamber music. “I love the combinations of instruments and the closeness of the music to you,” he says. “I am now passionate about chamber music.”
The cellist was Monica Scott, now in the Del Sol String Quartet (1). They married in 1996 and came to San Francisco two years later. Dominique spent four years as public relations and marketing manager of the San Francisco Community Music Center, where he began to solve problems and create strategies that brought excellent results for the Center and for musicians.
Dominique is eager to apply his insights to SFFCM. He hopes the SFFCM affiliate program can be expanded to provide a protective chrysalis for more young ensembles. He sees the chamber music scene in San Francisco as rich with possibilities. A colleague once commented “Dominique always has one more good idea”–he is dreaming of a local concert space perfect for presenting chamber music and jazz, with rooms for the SFFCM office and other music organizations, as well as a friendly restaurant to meet friends and music lovers.
Liz Dossa (published in SFFCM's November 2005 newsletter)
N.B. The information contained in this article was correct at time of publication. Please refer to the date the article appeared in our newsletter.
(1): Monica Scott left DSSQ in March 2006.
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