2022-2023 BSO Annual Report
Reflecting and Looking Ahead with BSO Leadership
From Chad Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer
Dear all,
The past 10 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 into a new chapter. This means connecting with audiences and finding programming that is acutely significant to their lives—musical pieces that challenge them, comfort them, and above all, inspire them through a sense of shared humanity. Festivals like 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 remarkable 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. Drawing ideas from new voices, literature, history, and culture brings new meaning to the works of art we bring to our stages and creates an enriched audience experience. And while we are invigorated by reinterpreting and bringing new meaning to the canon, we are endlessly committed to honoring the great classical pieces. We are here today because of our strong classical roots, and we always look to our illustrious past with reverence and respect.
Ultimately, the best measures of our ability to lead successfully are 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 together we begin an exciting new era for the BSO.
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. Thanks to the dedication of our thoughtful leadership, our dedicated staff, and our generous donors, we are more committed than ever to celebrating and fostering the power of music.
Over the past year, we have continued to build an organization that more closely connects us and brings us collective joy and universal comfort. This has resulted in some of our most diverse and representative seasons to date, and it’s gratifying to see so many new faces on our stages and in our audiences.
From our community collaborations in Boston and robust programming at Tanglewood, to the superb European tour, President and Chief Executive Officer Chad Smith and I stand recommitted to broadening access to music in all forms. The BSO is firmly rooted in its classical origins, and that will always hold true, but we are also energized by the impact we can make on the present and future with pieces shaped by more current literature, historical moments, and broader cultural influences.
As the stories in this report show, the 2022–2023 season was a brilliant 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 BSO’s next chapter.
Sincerely,
Barbara Hostetter
Chair, Board of Trustees