Jenny Bilfield, artistic director for Stanford Live, has announced that she will leave the program to become president and CEO of the Washington Performing Arts Society, an organization that connects leading musical performers to the D.C. metropolitan community by arranging concerts and other cultural events.

Bilfield has spent seven years at Stanford Live — formerly Stanford Lively Arts — during which she oversaw the commissioning of performances at Stanford by prominent musicians and composers, including Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen. She was also part of the committee in charge of the Bing Concert Hall construction project. The venue opened to the public on Jan. 11.

Before coming to Stanford in 2006, Bilfield worked with New York music publisher Boosey & Hawkes and spent three years as the company’s president. She later served as executive director of the National Orchestral Association and founder of the New Music Orchestral Project.

Bilfield will assume her new role on April 1.

— Molly Vorwerck