Carolyn Nishon, executive director of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, stands outside Merrill Auditorium last year. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

Carolyn Nishon, who has been the executive director of the Portland Symphony Orchestra for 10 years, will leave the organization this summer.

Her departure will come at the end of the orchestra’s 100th season.

“During this milestone anniversary, I’ve thought a lot about what one hundred years of music means — the thousands of musicians, staff, and audience members who have been part of that journey,” Nishon wrote in an email to orchestra supporters. “It’s truly a collaborative effort not unlike a symphony itself — just as an orchestra relies on the harmony of many musicians coming together and playing their part, each individual helps support the organization’s success in their own way.”

Nishon will resign her position at the end of July. She joined the staff of the Portland Symphony Orchestra in 2008 and was promoted to executive director in 2015.

Her 17 years at the nonprofit included its recovery from the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. She has negotiated contracts with the musicians, led a capital campaign and overseen a budget that grew to more than $4 million in recent years. Nishon was involved in strategic planning that led to the development of the Explorers program in 2014, which sends musicians into Portland public schools. She helped hire Eckart Preu, the current music director, and oversaw the release of the orchestra’s first CD.

“It’s been an immense honor to have been part of an incredible legacy of music, and, as the PSO closes the chapter on its first century, I can’t think of a better time to pass the baton to its next executive director to usher in a new one,” she said.