In Sunday’s (10/5) Boston Globe, David Weininger interviews Marie-Hélène Bernard, “who has been the executive director and CEO of the Handel and Haydn Society since 2007. She got her early-music stripes as a professional viola da gamba player, and later held management positions with the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras. She came to H&H from the Canton Symphony Orchestra, where she was president and CEO. Q. A bicentennial is a remarkable achievement for any arts organization. To what do you attribute H&H’s longevity? A. I think having been first established as a choral society, where everyone could join after an audition, made it so that these volunteers were so committed to music making and to the organization that they kept it afloat for that long…. But I think the common denominator through these 200 years is the people of Boston—these businesspeople, musicians, the visionaries who really kept it afloat…. I think the vision the founders have is no different than what brings us to music today: a commitment to making this community a much better community through music.… There’s quite a brilliant future for this organization.” The Globe also published a timeline tracing the orchestra’s history and a profile by Jeremy Eichler.
Posted October 7, 2014
