“Engagement: Arts Awareness in an Impatient World”

Emil J. Kang serves as Special Assistant to the Chancellor for the Arts. In this cabinet level position, Kang is responsible for programming arts events, activities and installations across campus, creating clear and well-coordinated communications about opportunities in the arts, and ensuring the arts are well-represented in all major campus initiatives, including the master plan, strategic framework, and capital campaign. Kang also serves as as Executive Director for the Arts with Carolina Performing Arts and as a Professor of the Practice in the department of music.

Prior to coming to Chapel Hill, Kang served as President and Executive Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO). Kang has also held positions with the Seattle Symphony, the American Composers Orchestra, and served as an Orchestra Management Fellow with the League of American Orchestras. In 2012, President Barack Obama nominated Kang to the National Council on the Arts. Kang’s nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate and he is currently serving a six year term, expiring in 2018. Kang currently serves on the boards of EMCarts (NY) and the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts at the UNC School of the Arts.  He also serves on the selection committee of the Institute of International Education’s Artist Protection Fund. He has an active consulting practice and serves as a grant and peer reviewer across the country.

Kang has been a member of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and completed the Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management program at Harvard Business School. Born in New York City, and trained in violin studies from a young age, he holds a degree in Economics from the University of Rochester in New York.