Gail Kalver

Advisory Board Member

Gail Kalver, a native Chicagoan, is an independent arts management consultant and project manager, having recently incorporated as "Gail Kalver Arts Management, Inc." Her current clients include the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, the Ruth Page Center for Dance in Chicago and SeeChicagoDance.com for Carol Fox and Associates, an arts marketing firm. Past clients include The Chicago Dancing Project and 2007 Festival (Lar Lubovitch and Jay Franke, Founders and Artistic Directors), Dance Affiliates of Philadelphia, and the Grant Park Concert Association for the City of Chicago in Millenium Park, Chicago. Pro bono clients include Dmitri Peskov and Dancers and LehrerDance. She recently completed training to be an Interim Executive Director by the Executive Service Corps of Chicago, and will soon begin that assignment for the Chicago Human Rhythm Project.

Previously, she was Executive Director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago for 23 years, where she guided the company through substantial growth, seeing the formation of the highly-respected second company, Hubbard Street 2, vast education and community services, the acquisition of the Lou Conte Dance Studio and the purchase and renovation of the Hubbard Street Dance Center in the West Loop. She received a degree in vocal/choral music education from the University of Illinois (Champaign/Urbana) and a master’s degree in clarinet from the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University (now Chicago College of Performing Arts) in 1974. Kalver founded the Windy City Wind Ensemble with David Johnson in 1971 and also performed as a free-lance musician with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera Orchestra, Joffrey Ballet Orchestra and Grant Park Symphony. She joined the Ravinia Festival staff in 1976, where she became associate manager before joining Hubbard Sttreet in 1984. Kalver was also music consultant to the Peabody Award-winning National Radio Theatre and wrote the monthly publication "Music Explorer", for students grades 4 through 8, which was distributed nationally.

Kalver has served on the boards of the Chicago Dance Coalition, Dance/USA and the National Association of Performing Arts Managers and Agents and on numerous local, state and national funding panels. She currently serves on the boards of Chicago Dancers United and the Arts & Business Council of Chicago; on the advisory councils of Northshore Concert Band (where she also plays clarinet), Dancers Responding to AIDS, Child’s Play Touring Theatre, Project Bandaloop and the Trey McIntyre Project; and served on the Excellence in Dance Initiative Advisory Committee of the Chicago Community Trust for the 5 years of their Dance Initiative.

Kalver is the recipient of the Chicago Dance Coalition's 1988 Ruth Page Award for Service to the Field, was recognized by Today's Chicago Woman as one of 100 women making a difference in Chicago in 1996; and has co-chaired the Midwest Arts Conference and Dance for Life, the annual AIDS benefit of Chicago Dancers United. In 2003, her 20th anniversary with Hubbard Street, Kalver was the recipient of the Arts & Business Council of Chicago’s ABBY Award for Arts Management Excellence and she recently received the 2007 Ruth Page Award for Lifetime Service, now given by the Ruth Page Foundation in Chicago.