Serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, Inc., Linda Edelstein takes the leadership role in strategic planning, donor cultivation and fundraising, financial and managerial controls, and serves as vice president of the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center (MYAC). Ms. Edelstein leads a team of more than fifty full- and part-time administrative and artistic staff and oversees more than 40 program offerings serving nearly 1,000 students from up to 14 counties, 60 cities and more than 200 schools in southeastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. She manages a budget of approximately $3 million, with endowment and reserves of more than $7.5 million.

Together with the Managing Director of First Stage, she provides administrative leadership for MYAC, including but not limited to budget, fundraising, personnel, security, scheduling, and public relations, and serves on the MYAC Board of Directors.

Previously, Ms. Edelstein held numerous positions at the United Performing Arts Fund from 2005-2012, culminating in Chief Operating Officer. In that role, she oversaw an annual budget of more than $10 million, fund allocations of over $8.3 million, and worked with the UPAF President and community leaders to frame the annual campaign process and engage the community for the benefit of the arts. Prior to her work at UPAF, Ms. Edelstein was the Executive Director of the Waukesha Symphony Orchestra (now Wisconsin Philharmonic) for seven years, at which she created the organization’s “Success Through Music” program engaging children from diverse backgrounds to discover their potential through music education.

Ms. Edelstein holds an Executive MBA from Marquette University, a Master of Music from Yale University and a Bachelor of Music Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was an Irving S. Gilmore Fellow at Yale and regularly performed professionally throughout southeastern Wisconsin as an oboist and English hornist with Milwaukee’s finest organizations, including the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Edelstein has also worked as a music faculty member at UW-Whitewater, UW-Oshkosh, Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, Hartland Music Center, Yale University, and in a private studio. She volunteers her time on the boards for the Elmbrook Rotary Club (President 2017-18), Youth Orchestra Division of the League of American Orchestras (Secretary), Frankly Music (Governance Chair), and the Association of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestras.