Arts foundation head to bow out

The head of one of the local performing arts community's most powerful fundraising groups will step down at the end of the year.

Randall Brion plans to resign as executive director of the Foundation for the Performing Arts Center on Dec. 31, he said this week. The foundation was established two decades ago as part of a partnership with the city of San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly to build and maintain the state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year.

"I've basically finished the work I was brought there to do," said Brion, who took over as the foundation's third executive director in 2001. "I'm proud of the work I've done."

Brion's successor has not yet been announced.

This year, Brion saw a series of fundraising initiatives -- including capital construction funds and endowment giving -- come to fruition. He also watched a long-awaited pipe organ finally take its place in Harman Hall, thanks to a generous donation by Burt and Candee Forbes, a local couple who founded the computer development firm Ziatech Corp.

"It is really turning into a musical instrument and a work of art. It is more than a pile of pipes and levers," Brion said of the three-story organ, made by legendary organ builder C.B. Fisk. It arrived in San Luis Obispo in June.

With his resignation, Brion returns to an earlier career -- conducting and producing music.

Before joining the foundation, Brion conducted orchestra and string arrangements for pop artists including Fiona Apple, Macy Gray and Ryan Adams and did occasional gigs for HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

"I've always had an interest in both sides of the musical equation," he said.

Brion and his wife plan to move to Los Angeles to be closer to friends and family, though he says he'll be back occasionally.

In March, Brion will appear as a guest conductor with the San Luis Obispo Wind Orchestra at the Performing Arts Center.

"It'll be the first time I've performed at Harman Hall," Brion said with a laugh.