Advertising, Best Practices, Arts Management, Brand Values, Business of Opera, Business Partnership, Business Development, C-Suite, Corporate Governance, San Francisco, Technology James Mowdy Advertising, Best Practices, Arts Management, Brand Values, Business of Opera, Business Partnership, Business Development, C-Suite, Corporate Governance, San Francisco, Technology James Mowdy

San Francisco Symphony CEO and Board Chair: Please repair your brand or resign

(San Francisco, CA) - Esa-Pekka Salonen’s announced 2025 departure from San Francisco Symphony still stuns, even several months on. With this piece, OI aims to:

  • Explore the known why behind the financial crisis

  • Explain why we oppose the company’s devastating, short-sighted cuts

  • Provide guidance on how this legacy brand could begin repairing its self-inflicted wounds

Given his stature as the Bay Area’s classical music journalist, we first relied on San Francisco Chronicle’s Joshua Kosman and his reporting. Kosman’s first piece laid out the situation, Salonen’s terse statement, SFS musicians’ vocal support of their Maestro, as well as their demand for audited financials from CEO Mark Spivey and Board Chair Priscilla Geeslin...

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Brand, Business of Opera, Women in Business, C-Suite, Changemakers, Classical Voice, Arts Management, Business Partnership, Arts Venues, Best Practices, Symphony, Tourism, Business Development James Mowdy Brand, Business of Opera, Women in Business, C-Suite, Changemakers, Classical Voice, Arts Management, Business Partnership, Arts Venues, Best Practices, Symphony, Tourism, Business Development James Mowdy

OI Interview | Emma Scherer, Santa Fe Symphony's Executive Director

(Santa Fe, NM) - We’re especially excited to share this chat with Emma Scherer, who we’ve known since her time at The Santa Fe Opera, working closely with Charles MacKay, while also running the company’s Executive Office and Board Relations. We met in 2015, when I had the opportunity to onsite consult with SFO public relations and apprentice artists that season. I was immediately impressed by everything Emma did and how she did it; a professional’s professional who kept everything and everyone moving forward, towards that day’s business goals, with an eye to the evening’s performance and everything that meant for Mr. MacKay and countless others. Fast-forwarding to the present, Emma has been The Santa Fe Symphony’s Executive Director since September 2021 and is preparing for the company’s 40th season in 2023/4. However, on the way there, Emma and collaborators launched the Art + Sol | Santa Fe Winter Arts Festival in February 2023…

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Q&A, Arts Management, Artist Management, Crisis Management, Relationship Management, Strategic Counsel, Business of Opera, Women in Business, Working Conditions, COVID Margaret Thompson Q&A, Arts Management, Artist Management, Crisis Management, Relationship Management, Strategic Counsel, Business of Opera, Women in Business, Working Conditions, COVID Margaret Thompson

Q&A: Artist Managers Share Insights, Brand Ethos and Unique How-To

Most people with a working knowledge of the business of opera understand how artists are often represented by managers who help them navigate their careers and/or how getting a manager is a primary goal for most young singers. The concept of a Hollywood-style or rock-and-roll music agent is already culturally imprinted, but when those concepts are extrapolated to opera, it can often mean different things…

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