Deirdre Chadwick is Assistant Vice President, Creative, Classical & Jazz at BMI, based in the company’s New York City office. In this role she oversees the company’s Classical and Jazz departments that manage royalty distributions for orchestral and large ensemble live classical concerts, offers guidance to BMI’s jazz and classical composers and publishers regarding payment eligibility, work registrations, licensing, and copyright matters, and more. Additionally, Chadwick directs the BMI Composer Awards, an annual premiere competition for young classical composers which distributes awards totaling $20,000 and oversees the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop, a premier annual New York-based program for emerging composers, focusing on big band/jazz orchestra composition.
Prior to this position, Chadwick was Executive Director, Creative, Classical for 14 years. Before joining BMI in 2010, Chadwick was a classical oboist, performing extensively in the U.S. and Canada with ensembles such as the Montreal Symphony, the American Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company, and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, where she served as principal oboe for seven years. A dedicated teacher, Chadwick also served on the faculties of Dickinson College and Susquehanna University.
Chadwick holds two performance degrees and the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music and serves as President of the BMI Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to encouraging the creation, performance, and study of new American music.