The Seattle composer signs on as the organization’s managing director.

Bainbridge Performing Arts will celebrate its golden anniversary this year under the tutelage of new managing director Christopher Shainin.

“BPA has exciting plans for the future, including the upcoming 50th anniversary season,” Shainin said. “It will be a wonderful time for all of us who love the arts.”

Shainin started “running full steam” a week ago, immersing himself in meetings and strategy sessions as he learns the organization’s history.

A successful composer with hefty managerial credentials, including extensive training in arts management and 10 years’ experience working for non-profits, Shainin said he is excited about this latest challenge, which involves overseeing all BPA operations and productions.

BPA Board President John Ellis said the organization is equally pleased to have Shainin “join us at this critical time in our growth.”

“Christopher was selected from a deep and varied field of candidates due to his personality and enthusiasm for BPA,” Ellis said, “as well as his high level of skills, garnered in part at the Kennedy Center.”

Shainin replaces Per Sherwin, who resigned in April 2005. BPA Production Director Mark Sell served as interim managing director.

“The importance of BPA to the community cannot be overstated,” said Shainin, who was lured by the Playhouse facility and the services it provides, including “the tremendous education programs for adults and children.”

The opportunity to “improve where we can as soon as possible” and “make BPA a model for the region” made the position even more attractive. He also was drawn by the “dedication and integrity of the staff and the very dedicated board.”

Shainin spent some time on Bainbridge as a sub in the orchestra many years ago – he played timpani – and has seen The EDGE improv show, albeit in West Seattle. He knows about BPA through musician friends in Seattle.

To address all his BPA duties, Shainin will have to lighten his composing load.

The revision he planned for his chamber opera is on hold, and he won’t be able to delve into as many multicultural collaborations as before. But he can celebrate the score he wrote for the film “Apart From That,” which was selected for the 2006 San Jose Cinequest Film Festival, one of the top 10 festivals in the country.

Shainin and his wife, physician Hope Wechkin, a soprano, will continue to live in Seattle, in part because of his ties to the arts community there. Keeping those contacts will benefit BPA, he said.

Shainin attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, where he had a double major: theater and politics. While in his 20s, he decided to write a musical, despite not having a musical background. After its production, he went on to Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle to study music seriously.

That led to a focus on orchestral music and management and a music degree, followed by a master’s and doctorate in music composition at the University of Washington.

In 2004-05, he completed a fellowship in the highly competitive Kennedy Center arts management program. He honed his skills in all departments of the center, from finances to marketing. The orchestra manager handles myriad duties, from personnel to production to paying bills and marketing.

“I got a sense of the challenges there,” Shainin said. “With a budget larger than the NEA, the nation’s best arts center lived up to its reputation.”

Shainin will continue to set the bar high for himself, not move more leisurely because of the size of the island community and its informality and conviviality.

In whatever spare time he has, he plans to frequent the theater and music and dance performances and watch foreign films at home.

If he’s having a bad day, he’ll unwind with poetry from his large collection.

He’ll also continue as the director of the Washington Composers Forum because he loves doing it, but he will shift some of the duties to others.

“I’ve collaborated with a lot of local arts organizations and it’s important to keep up those communications. It’s something I hope to bring to BPA and keep that connection with Seattle,” he said.