Thursday, March 13th, 2025
Loki Karuna Joins ACF as Executive Director,
Vanessa Rose becomes CEO
American Composers Forum (ACF) announced today the appointment of LOKI KARUNA to the position of Executive Director. Vanessa Rose, who has led the organization since 2019, will assume the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) role. This new leadership structure reflects the organization’s movement towards a greater role in advocacy for living music creators in the context of the systemic challenges and timely topics of our world today.
In addition to leading ACF’s anti-racism strategy, Loki’s responsibilities will include overseeing its media content strategy and production (including innova Recordings and I CARE IF YOU LISTEN), community learning, and consulting partnerships. Vanessa will continue to oversee organizational strategy, fundraising, and finances; both will be active in programming, artist engagement, and partnerships.
For 50 years ACF has been providing composer-centered programming, first in Minnesota and then across the country. Starting as an artist collective co-founded by composers Libby Larsen and Stephen Paulus, the organization has moved through many changes over the years, continually striving to evolve to support living composers (and expanding the definition of a composer). This leadership change is part of a broader evolution within the organization, guided by its mission and the programs most critical for the field, while ensuring long-term sustainability.
Vanessa Rose shares, “ACF’s mission is to support and advocate for individuals and groups creating music today by demonstrating the vitality and relevance of their art. There is power in the music of today and the people who create it. There is power in centering musical stories from those marginalized, erased, or ignored. With the landscape of our current environment, we are compelled to direct our energy and available resources to work with a variety of communities to bring artists’ stories to the forefront of public conversation, to address racist systems, and to provide deeper agency to the artmakers.”
In recent years, ACF has centered a commitment to racial equity that has framed its support of artists, advocacy for composers across the ecosystem, and resources aimed at activating meaningful and equitable opportunities for composers. Examples of this include the series Anatomy of a Commission, offering transparency and nuanced resources for all involved in commissions; the I CARE IF YOU LISTEN site offering a trusted platform for artists to share their own narratives and for a variety of contributors to provide different perspectives on timely issues; and ACF’s funding partnerships with the McKnight Foundation for mid-career artists and Jerome Foundation for early-career artists. ACF will continue its engagement with the Performing Arts Alliance and other national advocacy coalitions as well.
“Realities for music creators across the Americas are quickly changing,” shares Loki Karuna. “I believe that ACF, following years of equity-focused programming (that predates 2020) and artist-led dialogue, is uniquely positioned to center work that helps serve today’s music creators who understand the importance of art as a tool for resistance against societal and systemic inequity and injustice.”
Loki continues: “Since 2020, equity-aligned programming and initiatives within the field of Western classical music have resulted in many positive results, but largely marginal. While the intersections and breadth of various identities, experiences, and histories are vital to our work of expanding the field, it is my belief that, within our context, the historic harm imposed on Indigenous peoples and American descendants of enslaved individuals should shape all perspectives and resulting actions related to achieving broader equity within the arts – this will guide the work of ACF moving forward.
“I’m thrilled to support this work from New York City as ACF’s Executive Director, connecting our mission to the countless presenters, artists, and organizations who share our values and vision for the future.”
Loki brings significant experience in media and storytelling as President & Founder of Trillwerks Media – which he will continue – as well as notable experience in both composer advocacy and anti-racist work, including his role as Director of Artist Equity with the American Composers Orchestra. As a guest speaker, consultant, and lecturer partnering with institutions across the Americas, Loki joins Vanessa to lead ACF’s commitment to thought leadership and activism. (Read his full bio below.)
Over the past six years, Loki has been a close collaborator with ACF: he advised on and joined the Racial Equity and Inclusion Forum in September 2019, which took place at the Twin Cities PBS station and was attended by artists and leaders from around the country. As a board member, he has led a dedicated board/staff equity committee, which created the organization’s first commitment to racial equity as part of its five-year strategic framework and has continued to oversee its implementation. (He is stepping down just before the end of his board term.)
Dr. Lee Bynum, ACF’s Board Chair, adds: “At ACF, we have always understood that supporting composers means more than just fostering creativity; it means advocating for equity, expanding access, and ensuring that the voices shaping the future of music reflect the full breadth of our communities. As both artists and advocates, we embrace this next chapter with a renewed commitment to bold leadership, deeper engagement, and transformative change. With Loki Karuna as our new Executive Director and Vanessa Rose continuing to provide visionary leadership, ACF is poised to amplify the power of today’s music and the people who create it.”
“Today’s dynamic world has evoked fear, uncertainty, and resistance,” comments Vanessa Rose. “Art does not happen in a vacuum, and we hope our changes enable us to stand with our communities and engage in the pressing issues of today. I am grateful to be shaping this work with a longtime, trusted colleague and partner in this new role.”
Loki will assume this position full time on June 10, 2025.
Photo of Loki: Devon Fails
About Loki Karuna
New York City-based musician, producer, and administrator, Loki Karuna has been noted as not only a “classical agitator,” but also “a Black talent in public media that you may not know, but should.” In 2021, The New York Times noted his podcast, TRILLOQUY, as a standout and one that is “required listening,”maintaining a top-10 spot among classical music podcasts globally. Loki is a recipient of the Sphinx Organization’s MPower Artist Grants for his work in broadcast and digital media, and was named among Musical America’s “Top 30 Arts Professionals of the Year” in 2024.
Nationally syndicated radio programming and series created by Loki include “The Sound of 13,” “Noteworthy,” “Gateways Radio,” and “The Sounds of Kwanzaa.”Away from the airwaves, Loki offers guest lectures, presentations, and equity training at the intersections of race, culture, Black liberation, and classical music, with past collaborators including the Gateways Music Festival, the Sphinx Organization, the Kennedy Center, the Apollo Theater, Black Music Experience, the Minnesota Music Teachers Association, New Music Gathering, and the MacPhail Center for Music. Recent college, university, and conservatory guest lecture partners include Yale University, the Manhattan School of Music, Freie Universität Berlin, the Peabody Institute, Cornell University, the University of Memphis, the University of Southern California, and the University of Minnesota, Duluth.
Loki (formerly Garrett McQueen) began his career as an orchestral bassoonist, performing with ensembles including the South Arkansas Symphony, Jackson (TN) Symphony, American Youth Symphony, Memphis Repertory Orchestra, the Eroica Ensemble, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, the Southeast Symphony, the Artosphere and Gateways Festival Orchestras, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. With a desire to “decolonize” American classical music, he later transitioned away from the performance stage and into digital and broadcast media, being heard as a radio and podcast host across all 50 states and in over 100 countries.
Loki’s written work includes contributions to the “Future/Present” and “From Our Eyes and Ears” anthologies, both exploring stories and techniques on reshaping arts ecosystems. Upcoming publications include an addition to a new work highlighting intersections between arts activism and science fiction (scheduled for summer 2025), and a book of transcribed dialogues from the TRILLOQUY podcast.
Loki holds a Bachelor of Music in Bassoon Performance from the University of Memphis and a Master of Music in Bassoon Performance from the University of Southern California. He continues to work as a performing bassoonist and narrator, in addition to serving as the President of TrillWerks Media.
Loki serves on the board of directors for Lyrica Baroque (New Orleans), the Lakes Area Music Festival (Brainerd, MN), Decolonizing the Music Room (Fort Worth, TX), and the Cedar Cultural Center (Minneapolis). Loki is a practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism and spends his free time studying Black history and Eastern philosophy, eating plant-based cuisine, and enjoying life with his partner, Dell.
LINK TO LOKI KARUNA’s WEBSITE/PHOTOS/MEDIA
About Vanessa Rose
Vanessa Rose strives to lead change towards a more just world through the creation of and engagement with art. She has led American Composers Forum (ACF) since January 2019, guiding the organization’s transformation towards greater racial equity and elevating advocacy on behalf of music creators of today. During her tenure at ACF, the organization has increased equitable opportunities for living composers, modeled composers as change agents in communities, acquired the media site I CARE IF YOU LISTEN, and transitioned from a membership to community-centric fundraising model.
For more than 15 years, Vanessa has been working with artists and organizations dedicated to living creatives, leading them through significant transitions and strategic transformation. In addition to ACF, these include the Lark Play Development Center, American Composers Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, and The Knights orchestra collective. Previous administrative experience includes positions at the Metropolitan Opera and League of American Orchestras, plus the League’s former year-long Orchestra Management Fellowship Program with residencies at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Elgin (IL) Symphony, and Aspen Music Festival and School.
Vanessa has participated in industry leadership and panels with partners such as Chamber Music America, the League of American Orchestras, the Sphinx Organization, Opera America, and Arts Midwest. She has served as a frequent nominator for various artist awards plus as a grant panelist for organizations including the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Opera America, and United States Artists.
A Western classical violinist, Vanessa studied performance at Indiana University, Eastman School of Music (B.M.), Mannes College of Music (M.M), and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, The Netherlands. First pursuing a career as an orchestral violinist, Vanessa regularly performed with such orchestras as the Harrisburg Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and New World Symphony, plus the Spoleto Festival orchestras in Italy and the US, as well as various freelance work in NYC. She continues to play and perform when possible.
Vanessa is a member and past Board Chair of the Performing Arts Alliance national advocacy coalition and serves on the board of The Dream Unfinished activist orchestra. An amateur anthropologist, she is interested in studying people and our behaviors, especially as it relates to systemic racism in the U.S. Her greatest accomplishment is being a mom – to two teenagers – and she is a lover of languages, travel, running, and biographies.
About American Composers Forum
ACF’s mission is to support and advocate for individuals and groups creating music today by demonstrating the vitality and relevance of their art. We do this by empowering the composers with funding and resources, modeling creative partnerships, and advocating for artists through storytelling and connections. Working with an ecosystem of artists, programmers, presenters, teachers, funders, and audiences, we frame all of our work with a commitment to racial equity, believing that creating a fairer world for artists benefits all of us.
Founded in 1973 by composers Libby Larsen and Stephen Paulus as the Minnesota Composers Forum, the organization continues to invest in its Minnesota home while connecting artists and advocates across the United States, its territories, and beyond. Visit www.composersforum.org to learn more.