Lecture: Chad Smith, President and CEO, Boston Symphony Orchestra

The Arts Administration program at Boston University's Metropolitan College (MET) is proud to announce that Chad Smith, President and CEO, Boston Symphony Orchestra, will deliver the fourth annual Daniel Ranalli Lecture.

The Daniel Ranalli Lecture is complimentary, but seating is limited. The event will be followed by a reception at the 808 Art Gallery. The reception is limited to the first 100 people who respond. Please indicate your interest to attend the reception.

Speaker Bio:

Over more than 20 years of service, Chad Smith has dramatically altered the educational landscape of classical music, curated festivals and programs that unite disparate forms of music and art, and set a new and aspirational standard for what an orchestra should be in the 21st century. Smith is currently the Julian and Eunice Cohen President and CEO of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), which he has led since 2023; he has previously served as President and CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil).

In his first year as President and CEO, Smith made major investments in the BSO’s artistic future by extending Music Director Andris Nelsons’ contract indefinitely, while simultaneously naming him Head of Conducting at Tanglewood. He also extended the contract of Artistic Partner, Education and Community Engagement Thomas Wilkins and deepened the BSO’s partnerships with Boston nonprofits, including GBH/CRB and Project STEP. A longtime advocate for new music and emerging composers, Smith further invested in the BSO’s future by establishing the Deborah and Philip Edmundson Composer Chair position. The inaugural Chair, Carlos Simon, launched his three-year term in fall 2024 with the world premiere of his Festive Overture and Fanfare in honor of Music Director Andris Nelsons’ tenth anniversary at the BSO.

A former Fellow at the BSO’s Tanglewood Music Center, Smith carries on his longstanding dedication to training and supporting the next generation of artists and cultivating an inquisitive audience. In 2024, Smith and the BSO announced the Boston Symphony Orchestra Humanities Institute to advance this goal. Inspired by the foundational work that began in 2019 with the opening of the Linde Center for Music and Learning and the launch of the Tanglewood Learning Institute, the BSO Humanities Institute will present a platform of offerings which will contextualize and enhance the orchestra’s musical offerings with lectures, exhibitions, and other programming rooted in an exploration of the humanities. Also this year, Smith and the BSO expanded the Susan W. and Stephen D. Paine Resident Fellows Program, which presents rising musicians from historically unrepresented backgrounds with valuable professional experience at a crucial time in their careers; the newest cohort of Resident Fellows began their residencies in Fall 2024.

Smith’s tenure in Boston builds on his two decades of experience at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he climbed the ranks from a junior programming position to CEO of the institution—a position he held from 2019 to 2023. In his time at the LA Phil, Smith worked alongside Music Directors Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel to expand the orchestra’s programming and commissioning of new music, create highly successful community education initiatives such as the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA), and lead the institution into America’s most vibrant orchestra. He also oversaw the development of the Beckmen YOLA Center, a 25,000-square-foot facility built specifically for YOLA, and the management of The Ford Theater, a historic theater in central Los Angeles over which the LA Phil assumed responsibilities in 2020.

Photo Credit: Kayana Szymczak

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, 808 Commonwealth Avenue, Brookline, United States