Mark Volpe
Mark Volpe served as President and CEO of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from September, 1997 until June, 2021. In his role, he was responsible for all of the activities of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops and Tanglewood as well as the real estate holdings of the BSO, the most extensive of any orchestra in the world.
During his tenure, the BSO reaffirmed its status as one of the world’s leading orchestras. Volpe built and managed a roster of renowned artistic partners including Andris Nelsons, John Williams, Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, Keith Lockhart and James Levine, He forged strong connections with the musicians of the BSO, best exemplified by the successful negotiations of eight labor agreements. As steward of the organization’s finances, he oversaw an annual budget of $107 million, quadrupled the endowment (the largest of any orchestra in the world) to $540 million, raised more than $850 million in annual and capital funds, secured $100 million from 40 corporate sponsors and oversaw the growth of www.bso.org which has generated over $250 million in revenue.
Prior to Boston, Volpe had leadership positions with the orchestras of Detroit, Minnesota and Baltimore. In Detroit, Volpe helped lead an initiative that resulted in the construction of the Fisher Music Center as well as the $100 million Detroit School for the Arts. The project was a catalyst for the resurgence of Detroit.
After his retirement from the BSO, Volpe has advised numerous orchestras and music festivals in the United States and Europe and lectured/taught at Harvard University, Yale University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Colby College, Indiana University, Boston University, SMU and the Universities of Minnesota, Miami and Rochester. Currently, Volpe is a visiting professor/lecturer at Bocconi SDA (Milan) and the universities of Rome, Venice, Bologna, and Lugano as well as being a panelist at the Forum Impresa Cultural Italia in Rome. In March of 2024, Volpe was elected to the board of the Miami based Dr. M. Lee Pearce Foundation.
Volpe obtained his Juris Doctorate cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1983 and a bachelor’s degree in music from the Eastman School in 1979. In 2017, Volpe was elected to the 237th class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was awarded the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by France’s Minister of Culture in 2019. Volpe holds honorary doctorates from Boston University, the University of Rochester, Northeastern University, the New England Conservatory of Music and Westfield State University.