Welz Kauffman resigned from the Tucson Festival of Books on Tuesday, March 12 โ€” less than two months after being named executive director.

The Tucson Festival of Books will launch a search for a new executive director two months after naming a leading arts administrator to the position in January.

Welz Kauffman, the former longtime leader of Chicagoโ€™s storied Ravinia Festival, resigned on Tuesday, March 12 โ€” less than two months after he assumed the position on Jan. 16.

Kauffman on Wednesday said the TFOB job โ€œfelt like a dream jobโ€ when he took it in January. But as he got into the job, he said he realized it was โ€œnot feeling like a good match.โ€

โ€œAt the end of the day, I really missed working in music,โ€ said Kauffman, who came to TFOB with a long resume with some of the countryโ€™s leading classical music organizations, including helming the Ravinia.

Ravinia, held each summer, is North Americaโ€™s oldest outdoor music event.

A resident of Tucson since 2020, Kauffman, 62, was managing director of Tucsonโ€™s Emmy- and Grammy-nominated professional choir True Concord Voices & Orchestra from 2021 until leaving in early January for the TFOB position.

He was hired to replace Melanie Morgan, who resigned in May after six years as the festivalโ€™s executive director.

The Tucson Festival of Books, which brought 130,000 people to the UA campus last weekend, is searching for a new executive director after Welz Kauffman resigned on Tuesday.ย ย 

TFOB officials said the board will discuss the position when it holds it quarterly meeting on March 21.

Kauffman, a classically trained pianist, said he is focusing on several upcoming recitals including accompanying soprano Nicole Cabell in a Tucson Desert Song Festival recital on April 9.

Some 130,000 people attended the 2024 Tucson Festival of Books March 9-10. The two-day event, on the University of Arizona campus, featured 400 authors and 200 exhibitors.

Renowned sports broadcaster Dan Patrick, host of the nationally-syndicated Dan Patrick Show and former host of ESPN's SportsCenter and NBC's Football Night in America, joined the Arizona Daily Star's Justin Spears on an episode of The Arizona Daily Star's "Wildcast" podcast this week ahead of Patrick's visit to Southern Arizona for the 2024 Tucson Festival of Books.


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Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Twitter @Starburch