A Conversation between Boston Symphony Orchestra President Mark Volpe and Leipzig Gewandhaus General Director Andreas Schulz
Last February, as COVID-19 took hold, cultural organizations around the world were forced to close their doors to the public. A year later most are still closed and struggling to find alternative ways to reach their audiences. Meanwhile, the calls for inclusion and diversity in classical music grow louder and more insistent. We check in with arts organizations on both sides of the Atlantic to ask how they are doing and what the future looks like in their eyes.
Our first conversation connects into the innovative partnership between the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Gewandhaus zu Leipzig. The leaders of these two prestigious orchestras talk with Boston Globe music critic Jeremy Eichler about their experiences and visions for the future.
Please register below. A zoom link will be sent separately via email.
ANDREAS SCHULZ
General Director of the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig.
Andreas Schulz (*1961) studied musicology, literature, and educational science with special emphasis on music education in Hamburg. For several years he was responsible for pedagogic matters of the master classes at the University of Lübeck and the Orchestra Academy in the Castle Salzau. From 1995 to 1997, he held the post of CEO at Bremen’s concert hall „Die Glocke“. In 1998, he was appointed General Director of the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig. His responsibilities include both the artistic management of the Gewandhausorchester and the Gewandhaus itself which is one of the most prestigious concert halls in Europe. During his tenure he worked in close collaboration with the Gewandhauskapellmeister Herbert Blomstedt and Riccardo Chailly. He now continues this successful teamwork with Andris Nelsons, appointed as the 21st Gewandhauskapellmeister in 2018.
Besides his post at the Gewandhaus, Andreas Schulz has lectured since 2001 as honorary professor in music management and cultural management at the University of Music in Bremen.
Amongst many other initiatives which include being co-initiator of the “Deutsche Konzerthauskonferenz” (German Concert-Hall Conference), Andreas Schulz is also co-founder of „The Management Symphony“ as well as of the Orchestra Foundation of German Economy. Several marketing and media networks of selected concert halls and festivals were founded thanks to his initiative. Since 2012, he has been a much sought-after jury member in many renowned music competitions and is active in numerous foundations.
MARK VOLPE
Eunice and Julian Cohen President and Chief Executive Officer, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Mark Volpe, who celebrated his 23rd anniversary as leader of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the start of the 2020-21 season, has played a major role in reaffirming the BSO’s standing as one of the world’s greatest orchestras. He has also maintained the orchestra’s financial equilibrium in a challenging economic environment, while overseeing its artistic mission of musical excellence and bringing the BSO to the widest possible audience through live performances, traditional and new media, and a wide variety of social media platforms. As CEO of BSO, Inc., he has been responsible for all the activities of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, and Tanglewood, as well as the institution’s real estate holdings in Boston and the Berkshires, a scope of activities unmatched by any other orchestra in the world. In addition to his many accomplishments with the BSO, Volpe’s tenure with the orchestra, along with his previous leadership positions with the orchestras of Baltimore, Minneapolis, and Detroit, represents an impressive 38-year commitment to the advancement of the field of classical music in this country.
JEREMY EICHLER is an award-winning critic and cultural historian who, since 2006, has served as chief classical music critic of
The Boston Globe. His work has also appeared in
The New Yorker and
The New York Times among many other publications. Eichler holds a doctorate in European History from Columbia University, and his writing and scholarship have been recognized with an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for music criticism, a Public Scholar grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Salo and Jeanette Baron Dissertation Prize, and fellowships from Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study as well the MacDowell Colony. A frequent guest speaker, Eichler previously taught at Brandeis University and is currently a local affiliate of Harvard's Center for European Studies. His first book —
Time's Echo: Four Composers, the Second World War, and the Memory of Music — will be published by Alfred A. Knopf.
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