Welcome Message
From Chad Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer
To the entire Boston Symphony Orchestra community,
My first several months with the BSO have been more rewarding and inspiring than I could have imagined. The commitment with which this organization, at every level, produces meaningful and enlightening musical experiences for our audiences is so energizing. The 2022 – 2023 Annual Report demonstrates an impressive breadth of milestones and also shows how our mission and programming impact individuals and communities in Boston and across the globe.
In the coming years, I look forward to leading the BSO with an open heart and a generous spirit. This means connecting with audiences and finding programming that is acutely relevant to their lives—musical pieces that challenge them when they need to be challenged, comfort them when they need to be comforted, and above all, inspire them through a sense of shared humanity. Festivals like last season’s Voices of Loss, Reckoning, and Hope provided a concentrated opportunity to engage more meaningfully with classic works and new compositions, allowing us to find how great art influences our lives.
We continue to seek out ways to reimagine and evolve how our work intersects with other artistic disciplines like theater, opera, dance, and film, as well as how the humanities illuminate and enrich audiences’ experiences. Layering in the humanities makes our collaborative art form of music more relevant - it allows us to ask questions, provoke ideas, and find greater meaning.
Ultimately, the best measure of our ability to lead successfully will be the connections we create—across centuries of musical tradition, between audience members and performers, within the inspiring world of our fellows and talented educators, and among the communities we serve in Boston, the Berkshires, and beyond. I am grateful for the commitment of my colleagues and the passionate support of our donors as we begin this exciting new era for the BSO together.
Warmly,
Chad Smith
Eunice and Julian Cohen President and Chief Executive Officer
From Barbara Hostetter, Chair, Board of Trustees
Dear fellow Boston Symphony Orchestra supporters,
An annual report is by definition retrospective, and though these stories from 2022 – 2023 certainly show progress, collaboration, and above all, beautiful music, they also point us toward great opportunities on the horizon. This organization is more vibrant, more engaging, and more sustainable than ever, thanks to the dedication of our thoughtful leadership, our dedicated staff, and our generous donors.
In my role as BSO Board chair, it is an honor to champion our artistry and the range of programming that inspires us, allows us to gather, and gives us a reason to celebrate year after year. Over the past year, we have continued to build an organization that is both rigorous in systems and practices, and generous in the way that we engage with our communities. A strong culture of inclusion has resulted in one of the most diverse and representative seasons to date, and it’s gratifying to see so many new faces on stage and in the audience.
The BSO has an extraordinary ability to build meaningful connections through music, no matter the venue. From our community collaborations in Boston, our Tanglewood programming in the Berkshires, and touring Europe and Japan, we engaged more audience members outside Symphony Hall in 2022 – 2023 than we did during any of the past several seasons. Wherever our musicians perform, it reminds us of the power and ability that music has to provide meaning and inspiration in our everyday lives. Our new CEO, Chad Smith, shares my commitment to continuing to offer works that are relevant and enlightening with the goal of welcoming audiences from all over. I look forward to collaborating with him to explore the humanities and add a compelling layer of programming to what I already consider some of the best programming in the world.
As the stories in this report show, the 2022 – 2023 season was a banner year for the BSO. We are immensely grateful for our supporters at all levels, who make this art possible—and who give me hope for the future of this beloved organization.
Sincerely,
Barbara Hostetter
Chair, Board of Trustees