Azim Mayadas

Educated at City and Guild’s College, London University - part of Imperial College - and the Royal Academy of Music, London, U.K., Azim Mayadas also took advanced management training courses at Harvard University and the Geneva-based International Labor Office.

Before taking up a career in the United States in non-profit arts management, he held senior-level positions in several leading corporations in the coal and industrial gases industries in India, namely, General Manager, Coal Companies of Bird & Company and General Manager, Indian Oxygen. When the coking coal industry was nationalized by the Government of India, he was appointed Chief Executive, Sales and Marketing, for the nationalized entity. His volunteer activities reflect his broad interests. These include service as a Board Member, Calcutta School of Music; Vice-Chairman, Calcutta Management Association; Trustee, Sir Edward Benthall Charitable Trust; Member, Finance Committee, Asiatic Society, India; former Senior Warden and Vestry Member, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Englewood, New Jersey; former Governing Committee Member of the Young Artists Auditions of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

Azim is a gifted composer and pianist who has performed regularly in live broadcasts over All-India Radio and in international competitions in Europe and the Americas. In 1956 he was a finalist in the prestigious Franz Liszt International Competition in Budapest and – the following year – a semi-finalist in the first Chopin International Competition in Rio de Janeiro. In 1970, he was the official Indian representative at the Berlin Festival of Music and Theatre. as well as the 14th Warsaw Autumn Festival of Contemporary Music.

Upon his arrival in the United States in 1975, Azim was appointed Assistant General Manager, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, New York and, three years later, General Manager of the Florida Philharmonic in Miami. In 1983 he was appointed Managing Director of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, a long-established professional association serving over 300 music/arts schools around the country. Upon his retirement in 2001 he was awarded the Guild’s President’s Award, together with his wife Lolita, in recognition of their leadership and services to community arts education.