Don Reinhold prefers to be behind the scenes.
The CEO of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra reluctantly spoke to the audience at the final concert of the 2023-24 season to thank them, for which he received a standing ovation.
“I was a little bashful about doing it, but I did it, and I’m glad I did,” recalled Reinhold, who retires from his position at the symphony after 12 years at the end of the month.
“That’s kind of my personality,” he added with a laugh. “Let somebody else take the flak.”
Daniel Hege, conductor and music director of the WSO, has known Reinhold since about 1997, when Hege was with the Baltimore Symphony and Reinhold was in charge of the National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland.
“Don is just a very thoughtful man,” Hege said. “He’s called himself an introvert, and I don’t think of him as an introvert. He is one who likes to read, likes to ponder, likes to write. That kind of temperament, his personality, is well-suited to the position as CEO of the Wichita Symphony.”