After serving as interim CEO during a period of transition, Tamara McCaw has been officially named president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The announcement came on March 20, nine months after McCaw assumed the interim CEO role in June 2025, according to Broadway World. As president, she will collaborate with the Board of Trustees and senior leadership to shape the institution’s strategic direction and lead it into its next chapter.
McCaw, 49, was unanimously selected
by the board of trustees from a pool of 60 candidates, according to Board Chair Diane L. Max. She becomes BAM’s third president in the past decade, following Gina Duncan’s departure in 2025 and Katy Clark’s exit in 2021.A collaborative leader with deep ties to BAM, McCaw previously led its government and community affairs efforts before joining The Shed as its inaugural Chief Civic Program Officer, where she helped launch Open Call. In 2023, she founded Public Assembly, a practice focused on advancing work at the intersection of culture and social impact.
“We are focused on stability,” McCaw said of her new role as president. “If you look at who I am, I am definitely a lifer. It’s my community-based roots. It takes time to do anything.”
BAM, she said, “made me,” adding, “It’s where I found my friends and my wife.”
McCaw takes the helm as BAM works to rebuild attendance, which
declined before the pandemic and worsened during it amid growing competition from venues like The Shed and the Park Avenue Armory. In 2025, BAM reported a rebound, welcoming 700,000 visitors as attendance returned to pre-pandemic levels, with ticket revenue reaching $15.5 million, its second-highest in a decade.“The struggles out there are real,” McCaw said. “But we are resilient. We are structured to meet those challenges.”
McCaw and Max said upcoming programming across dance, music, film, and theater—including a production of “Hamlet” from England’s National Theatre directed by Robert Hastie—will help sustain the institution’s appeal moving forward.
“We are very happy with our strategic plan,” Max said.
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