After a nationwide search for a new president and executive director, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra (MSO) found the right candidate, right next door in Flowood. Native Mississippian Janet Reihle, most recently executive director of the Chamber of Flowood & Visitor Center, brings fresh perspective and multi-layered experience to the MSO helm, building on a career in nonprofits, development, community building and tourism in central Mississippi. Reihle is on the board of the Mississippi Tourism Association and will now also be on the board of directors of the Flowood Chamber & Visitor Center.
Reihle holds a lifelong appreciation for music, “My mother always says when they first bought a piano for my sister to take lessons, I wanted to know where MY piano was. I took lessons for many years and while my sister played for Sunday morning services, they would sometimes let me play on Wednesday evening services – so that tells you who was the more talented of the two sisters.” Reihle also played guitar and sang and even entered the University of Southern Mississippi as a music industry major. “I was not a musician, but I was very inspired by musicians.” she said. She also managed a band in college and worked hard to get them local airplay. “I loved to help promote a great band or great musicians and to be able to share the art of others, even if I wasn’t creating it myself.”
Her path took a turn, thanks to a USM music professor who read a paper she wrote and advised, “I’m sorry, but you are in the wrong department, you should walk yourself to the communication building.” She did and received her bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in public relations.
Reihle immediately started working for nonprofits, logging 16 years with the Metropolitan YMCAs of Mississippi through many different roles, including executive management, branch director and development. “I really do love telling the stories of great nonprofits.” As executive director of the Chamber of Flowood & Visitor Center for the past four years, she relished the opportunity to share stories of hundreds of local businesses and the growth and development of a community she and her family also call home.
Reihle’s ability to connect people and to identify Rankin County opportunities and school partnerships that include music are what brought her to MSO’s attention as a stakeholder. When the search was on for a new president and executive director, Reihle got a phone call asking her to apply. “It seemed like a wonderful opportunity, and a challenge I had not considered,” she said.
The national search resulted in 77 candidates and after extensive interviews, Reihle rose to the top three finalist – the only one from Mississippi and the only one without orchestra experience – and yet, Reihle was the unanimous pick.
Reihle is keen to tell MSO’s story, shining a spotlight on its talented musicians, its work in education, and its mission to make sure their music is accessible to everyone. “It aligns with my original purpose to help musicians and talented people connect with their audience, as well as my commitment to my state,” she said. “They’re in our local schools, teaching children how to hold an instrument for the first time. They’re building part of the culture that makes music possible, across generations, throughout the state, and I would love for them to be recognized as part of what Mississippi does to cultivate not only a history but a future for music.”
“The symphony is vital to our community, and to our state’s culture,” Reihle said. Musicians sacrifice so much for their art, from years of training to hours of rehearsal and performance, Reihle continued, “I feel like my role is to eliminate any challenges they have, and really cultivate a community that supports that art, so that those musicians can continue to create and give that gift back to the world…. Their calling to make music deserves a full audience every time.”
She praised the unifying power of music in live performance, in bringing together people of different types and ages. “What’s created there is a community experience.” Reihle wants to hear from symphony lovers and from donors, to dig deep into their reasons behind that love and support, so she can learn from it, build on it, and thank people who have supported MSO over its 80-year history, making it, “absolutely accessible to everyone.” “Being able to be a part of an organization that puts instruments into children’s hands and changes their worlds is just amazing,” said Reihle, praising MSO’s education programs in Jackson, Hinds and Clinton schools. “I was able to see students turning in their violins at the end of the season, and several just really wanted to hold their violin tight a little longer.”
MSO’s Premier Orchestral Institute (P0I) and Summer Music Festival is another point of MSO pride she looks forward to sharing with more people. “It brings in international greats and gives everyone the opportunity to take lessons from a legend. I’m a baseball mom. I have two young boys. This opportunity would be the same as giving them an MLB player as a mentor for the summer – it’s that big of an opportunity and not many people know about it at all!”
Reihle sees her greatest skill as a connector of people. Building relationships and maximizing resources are key strengths she will apply directly to her post. MSO is making an incredible impact with few resources, she said. “The willingness of staff and the musicians to do it for all the right reasons, but with very limited resources — I want to make that easier for them, and I believe others want to do that for them too.”
Reihle lives in Flowood with her husband Gabe, a custom carpenter and owner of Distinctive Woodworks, and sons Silas, 13, and Ivan, 10, both students at Northwest Rankin. “I’m excited to be entering this role at the end of a season, on the eve of announcing the new season,” Reihle said. “I just hope that people will join me in this and say, ‘There’s a part that I can play in the symphony, too,’ whether that’s sitting in the audience, sponsoring a musician or a music lesson for a child, or hosting a symphony event in their community – we can all be instruments in making music in Mississippi.”