Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre has announced that managing director Michael S. Taormina will retire at the end of the year.
Taormina came to Atlanta in 2006 to complete building construction, develop venue programming, hire staff and open the new $142 million facility.
The 40-plus year venue management executive helped put the facility off I-75 in the Cumberland Galleria area on the map by making it the main performance home of The Atlanta Opera and Atlanta Ballet. Under his watch, Cobb Energy also has been active in arts education and hosts the annual Georgia High School Musical Theater Awards (also known as the Shuler Hensley Awards).
"From a blank canvas he created a successful operating model,” Michele L. Swann, general manager/CEO of the Cobb‐Marietta Coliseum & Exhibit Hall Authority said in Monday's announcement. “He is one of the most passionate proponents of the notion that when the wider Atlanta cultural community works together that’s when they find their strength and makes long‐lasting contributions to the region.”
Taormina seemed to leave the door slightly ajar in the announcement: "This may be my curtain call," he said, "but you never know, there could be an encore performance in my future.”
