consultants and Advisors
Shruti Adhar
Shruti Adhar
Consultant
With 25 years in the nonprofit cultural field, Shruti has worked across multiple disciplines as an executive leader, fundraiser, and grantmaker. Joining MCA as a consultant in 2019, she has led executive, artistic, and development searches in theater, ballet, orchestras, and museums, including Cleveland Play House, Goodspeed Musicals, MacDowell, Opera America, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, The Washington Ballet, Ballet Arizona, Center for Fiction, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, to name a few. She has also helped guide organizations through strategic planning and program development for organizations such as New Music USA, the League of American Orchestras, Central City Opera, and the University of Memphis Music Department. Prior to MCA, she served as Executive Director of The Knights, a Grammy-nominated New York chamber orchestra, where she almost doubled the budget, grew staff and infrastructure, and led a rebranding effort while building new fundraising and educational programs. Under her tenure, the orchestra also led multiple American and European tours, including for the opening season of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg; produced its first full opera, Candide at Tanglewood; and established its first New York City performance season.
Shruti’s earlier roles included Program Officer at the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, where she managed a portfolio of 180 arts organizations and helped the city transition to online grant administration, and Program Officer at the New York State Music Fund at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, overseeing $32 million in competitive grant funding. Shruti also served as Director of Development & Engagement at Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, where she exceeded both institutional and individual fundraising goals, expanded in-school educational programming, and instituted the American Notes commissioning program to support new music by diverse living composers.
Shruti holds an M.A. in Arts Administration from Columbia University and a B.A. in History from Yale University. She is active as a board member of the Yale Alumni Nonprofit Alliance, a member of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) Classical Connections Committee, a mentor with the Yale College Cross Campus Mentorship program, and a member of Women of Color in the Arts. She holds a Diversity & Inclusion Certification with Cornell University.
