HOUSTON (July 31, 2024) – The Houston Symphony is saying goodbye to John Mangum, its visionary Executive Director, CEO, and holder of the Margaret Alkek Williams Chair for the past six years. Mangum has accepted the role of General Director, President, and CEO of Lyric Opera of Chicago beginning this Fall 2024.
Founded in 1954, Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the country, renowned for its world-class productions featuring celebrated artists and innovative stagings. The Civic Opera House, a historic landmark renowned for its stunning Art Deco architecture, serves as the home of the Lyric Opera, hosting its performances and events since its opening in 1929.
“On behalf of the Board, I thank John for his leadership of the Houston Symphony during the last six years. John’s contributions during his tenure have been numerous and invaluable, and include welcoming Maestro Juraj Valcuha to the podium and leading the first major renovation of Jones Hall since its opening. In the midst of storms and a global pandemic, John has been instrumental in the strengthening of the Houston Symphony toward its vision as a world class orchestra and Houston cultural leader, creating extraordinary musical experiences for all,” stated Houston Symphony Society Board President Barbara J. Burger. “We have been fortunate to have John and his family in Houston and in the Houston Symphony family during these past six years, and we congratulate him and the Lyric Opera of Chicago on his appointment. The Houston Symphony is stronger as a result of John’s leadership and tireless efforts and is well positioned for our next President and CEO.”
“My tenure at the Houston Symphony has been the most professionally and personally fulfilling of my career so far,” said Mangum. “Together, we brought the orchestra out of the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and guided it through the pandemic, we have completed four of five summers of the Jones Hall renovation, significantly improving both the acoustics in the auditorium and on stage and the experience for our patrons, and we secured a world-class Music Director in Juraj Valčuha to follow our now-Conductor Laureate Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Financially, the Symphony is the strongest it has been in years. We have had balanced budgets or budget surpluses four of the last five seasons. Our Endowment is worth more than $100 million for the first time in its history, and our earned revenue has recovered to pre-pandemic levels and is trending more than 10% ahead year over year for the new season.”
Significant landmarks of John Mangum’s tenure at the Houston Symphony include successfully guiding the organization through the many months of physical and financial rebuilding following Hurricane Harvey, as well as the global COVID-19 pandemic, leading the industry by safely livestreaming concerts beginning in May 2020, and safely introducing small live audiences back into the concert hall throughout the entire 2020–21 season.
The search for a new Music Director to succeed Music Director Laureate Andrés Orozco-Estrada was led by Mangum, who also spearheaded the search for a new Concertmaster, as well as the on-boarding of current Music Director Juraj Valčuha and Concertmaster Yoonshin Song.
Mangum has also increased the orchestra’s endowment by 50 percent and secured major capital gifts for a $60 million campaign to support the renovation of the Symphony’s home, Jones Hall. In addition, he’s set in motion a new strategic plan for the organization that sets a clear and bold vision for the Symphony’s next ten years, committing the orchestra to the highest level of artistic and organizational quality, organizational stability, cultivating community and promoting inclusion toward inspiring and engaging a large and diverse audience in Houston and beyond.
Under Mangum’s leadership, the Symphony’s Education and Community Engagement made tremendous strides, growing the Student Concert Series into the largest school program of any major American orchestra, serving over 53,000 students annually. The Symphony also launched its In Harmony program during Mangum’s administration, partnering with the 5th Ward Cultural Arts District’s DeLUXE Theater and the American Festival for the Arts to establish an intensive and transformational, community-based music education program to provide exceptional violin training and social development to elementary school students from Houston’s Fifth Ward neighborhood.
“I am proud of the work we’ve done together these last six and a half years to get to this place,” said Mangum. “We have incredibly strong Board leadership, our staff is one of the best teams in the business, and our musicians are incredible artists, sounding better than ever, dedicated to their craft and to this orchestra. I’ll always look back with fondness and gratitude on my time in Houston.”
The Houston Symphony has launched an extensive search for Mangum’s successor as Executive Director led by Board President Barbara Burger and Board Chair Janet Clark. Mangum will remain in his role with the Symphony through September. In the meantime, the Symphony Board will appoint an interim CEO to be announced soon.
About John Mangum
John Mangum is the Executive Director, CEO, and holder of the Margaret Alkek Williams Chair at the Houston Symphony. He works with the Music Director Juraj Valčuha, the members of the orchestra, the Board of Directors, the staff, and other key stakeholders to further the orchestra’s mission of accessibility, relevance, and excellence.
After suspending concert activities in March 2020 and cancelling the remainder of 2019–20 events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mangum led the Houston Symphony to resume activities in May 2020, opening the 2020–21 Season on schedule in September 2020 with small audiences of 150, which the Symphony gradually increased to 450 audience members per performance. Under Mangum’s leadership, the Symphony successfully completed a full season with in-person audiences and weekly livestreams of each performance, making it one of the only orchestras in the world to do so.
Mangum previously served as the President and Artistic Advisor of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, a nationally and internationally recognized music presenter based in Southern California. Prior to that, he held senior artistic planning roles at the San Francisco Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He began his career in 1999 at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he worked as the staff program annotator and later as Artistic Administrator, developing the Orchestra’s programs at the Hollywood Bowl as well as a variety of concerts and projects at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Mangum holds a Ph.D. in history with a field in musicology, in addition to master’s and bachelor’s degrees in history, all from the University of California, Los Angeles. His scholarly work looks at the intersection of music and power in 18-century Geman-speaking Central Europe. As a freelance writer, he has written notes and articles for a variety of record labels, orchestras, presenters, and festivals, including regular contributions to the program books of the Salzburg Festival.
Mangum enjoys hiking, travel (especially visits to national parks, where he gets to combine the two), and food. He, his wife, and son all enjoy Houston’s rich cultural and culinary scene.
About the Houston Symphony
Under Music Director Juraj Valčuha, the Houston Symphony continues its second century inspiring and engaging a large and diverse audience in Houston and beyond through exceptional musical performances, and creating enduring impact in the Houston community. One of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, the Symphony held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston on June 21, 1913. Today, with an operating budget of $40.7 million, the full-time ensemble of professional musicians presents more than 130 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Traditionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s three Community-Embedded Musicians also offer over 1,000 community-based performances each year at various schools, community centers, hospitals, and churches, annually reaching more than 200,000 people in Greater Houston.
After suspending concert activities in March 2020, the Symphony successfully completed a full 2020–21 season with in-person audiences and weekly livestreams of each performance, making it one of the only orchestras in the world to do so. The Houston Symphony remains committed to livestreaming its 2024-25 Season to a broad audience in over forty-five countries and all 50 states, one of few American orchestras dedicated to transmitting live performances to a sizeable audience outside its home city through this technology. The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Koch International Classics, Naxos, RCA Red Seal, Telarc, Virgin Classics, and, most recently, Dutch recording label Pentatone. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at the 60th annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera Recording category. The Symphony’s most recent recordings include a Pentatone release in January 2022 of its world premiere performances of Jimmy López Bellido’s Aurora and Ad Astra, and a Naxos release in July 2023 of its world premiere performance of Jennifer Higdon’s Duo Duel.
About Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is committed to redefining what it means to experience great opera. The company is driven to deliver consistently excellent artistry through innovative, relevant, celebratory programming that engages and energizes new and traditional audiences.
Under the leadership of Interim General Director, President & CEO Elizabeth Hurley, Lyric’s Executive Leadership Team, and Music Director Enrique Mazzola, Lyric is dedicated to reflecting, and drawing strength from, the diversity of Chicago. Lyric offers, through innovation, collaboration, and evolving learning opportunities, ever-more exciting, accessible, and thought-provoking audience and community experiences. Lyric stands committed to training the artists of the future, through The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center; and to becoming increasingly diverse across audiences, staff, programming, and artists — magnifying the welcoming pull of the art form, company, and city. Through the timeless power of voice, the splendor of a great orchestra and chorus, theater, dance, design, and truly magnificent stagecraft, Lyric is devoted to immersing audiences in worlds both familiar and unexpected, creating shared experiences that resonate long after the curtain comes down.
Media Contacts:
Eric Skelly: 713.337.8560, eric.skelly@houstonsymphony.org