The New School Names College of Performing Arts Executive Dean Richard Kessler Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
New York, August 5, 2025—The New School today announced the appointment of Richard Kessler, Executive Dean of the university’s College of Performing Arts and Dean of Mannes School of Music, as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. An accomplished higher education administrator, musician, teaching artist, and advocate, Kessler begins in his new role today.
With approximately 9,300 undergraduate and graduate students and 132 degree programs, The New School is the only university with world-renowned, comprehensive design, social sciences, humanities, and performing arts schools. Its distinctive strength derives from its core commitments to creativity and social engagement.
In announcing the appointment, Joel Towers, President of The New School, said, “As a respected member of The New School community for 14 years, Richard is a proven leader committed to advancing our teaching and learning mission and seeking new opportunities for impact and institutional growth. He understands both the rich academic history of the university and our ambitious goals to remake The New School for the 21st century with innovative curricula that addresses the complexities of today’s world. Throughout his many years on our campus, Richard has earned a well-deserved reputation for making decisions that prioritize our students and contribute to the long-term success of the university. I am extremely pleased to welcome Richard into his new role.”
As Provost, Kessler will partner with President Towers in shaping the academic vision for The New School. He will focus on the university’s mission of academic excellence and achieving greater integration of The New School’s innovative transdisciplinary research, programs, and creative practice. Kessler will have direct responsibility for academic planning, curriculum, faculty affairs, research, and academic services and resources. He will work with the deans, faculty, and university leadership to leverage the strengths of The New School, advancing the university as a whole.
“I love The New School and am deeply honored to become provost at this particularly challenging time for higher education and indeed, the world,” said Kessler. “The vision of our founders is evergreen, compelling, and undoubtedly more than worth the continued efforts to translate that vision into something powerful for today and tomorrow. I am grateful to join our president, Joel Towers, all the leadership, staff, faculty, and our students to ensure that this great institution of learning will have a bright and important future.”
As Executive Dean of the College of Performing Arts and Dean of Mannes since 2011, Kessler was instrumental in The New School’s efforts to academically and physically integrate Mannes School of Music, School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and School of Drama to create the College of Performing Arts in 2015. Under his leadership, the College of Performing Arts has introduced new degree programs, minors, and concentrations, and has fostered the recruitment of groundbreaking new ensembles in residence, including the JACK Quartet, The Westerlies, and Sandbox Percussion; a foundational partnership to move the highly influential experimental music venue, The Stone, into The New School; an expansion of the Mannes Composition department, making it one of the most important departments of its kind; and the hiring of major figures in the performing arts including Leila Josefowicz, Jennifer Koh, and Arturo O’Farrill.
Kessler’s career in the arts, education, and academia spans more than three decades and is marked by a record of distinguished vision as a musician, educator, teaching artist, advocate, lobbyist, and organizational leader and consultant. Before his appointment as dean of Mannes in 2011, he served as executive director of the Center for Arts Education (CAE) from 2004 to 2011, where his work garnered him awards from the Music Educators Association of New York and the New York City Art Teachers Association/United Federation of Teachers. He previously was executive director of the American Music Center, where his work led to an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, and was senior vice president of Artsvision, an international arts education consulting company, where he led projects of national and international importance, including an arts focused part of Annenberg Foundation’s Challenge to The Nation—whose mission was to restore arts education to the New York City public schools, resulting in over $750 million in new funding, teachers, and arts supplies across the largest school district in the United States.
An accomplished musician, teaching artist and performer, Kessler has performed with the New York City Ballet and the New York City Opera. He was a college faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music, overseeing and teaching brass chamber music, and a winner of the Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award, as well as the Rafael Mendez International Brass Quintet Competition and the Artist International Competition. As a chamber musician, he commissioned and premiered works by major composers, including Arvo Part, Pauline Oliveros, Anthony Davis, and Ned Rorem. Kessler received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Juilliard School and attended Mannes for two years as an undergraduate student. He has served on the boards of the American Composers Orchestra, Great Minds, National Sawdust, and Chamber Music America, where he was board chair for almost a decade. Kessler also served on the New York State Board of Regents’ Blue Ribbon Commission on Arts Assessment and its Task Force on K-12 Principal and Teacher Effectiveness.
About The New School: Founded in 1919, The New School was established to advance academic freedom, tolerance, and experimentation. A century later, The New School remains at the forefront of innovation in higher education, inspiring more than 9,300 undergraduate and graduate students to challenge the status quo in design and the social sciences, liberal arts, management, the arts, and media. The university welcomes thousands of adult learners annually for continuing education courses and public programs that encourage open discourse and social engagement. Through our online learning portals, research institutes, and international partnerships, The New School maintains a global presence.