When starting out on my career path over 35 years ago, I would never have thought, even in my wildest dreams, that I would be running a professional orchestra. After all, I do not have a music background and cannot carry a tune. Today, as the President & CEO of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, I oversee a hundred staff, administrative and musicians, and am responsible for a $10 million budget. I bring to the job a well-developed set of skills for running the business of a performing arts organization and a genuine interest in learning about an art form that is as important today as it was hundreds of years ago.

What has delighted me over the last two years is how much I am enjoying classical music.  The more I attend, the more I want to learn about this exciting genre of music.  To advance my music education, I attend regularly the CPO’s pre-concert “chats” and post-concert “afterthoughts” to understand the conductor’s vision for the piece he is about to perform as well as interesting facts about the composer, his life and the times in which he lived.

I've got to admit that at first I felt most comfortable with the great masters – Beethoven and Mozart but now, I anxiously look forward to hearing works by Rachmaninoff, Sibelius, Verdi and Mahler.  Who would have known!  In the conversations that I have had with the thousands of people I meet at concerts, I have learned that I am not alone.  There are many others just like me who know what they like but are not necessarily well versed in the art form. 

I have come to understand that there is something very special about being in a concert hall surrounded by others experiencing live music, the resonance of sound and the magic that it creates.  I can listen to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony over and over and I will never experience it in the same way twice.  To me, listening to beautiful music is like watching a beautiful sunset.  Learning about classical music has turned out to be a continual source of surprise and satisfaction for me.  Whether I continue in the role as the President & CEO of this amazing Orchestra over the longer term or not is immaterial, for the classical music adventure that I have started has enriched my life. 

I invite you to join me in this classical music adventure.

Ms. Lewis-Luppino is an entrepreneur and business professional with more than 30 years’ experience in for- and not-for-profit management. Ms. Lewis-Luppino has been nominated for the Rozsa Award for Excellence in Arts Management for three consecutive years. She has been a member of the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Sector, The Kahanoff Foundation Fund and Resource Development Steering Committee, and Mount Royal College’s not-for-profit diploma program, the Keeler Society for Disabilities and Alberta Ballet. Beginning her career in education, she has received her certificate of adult education and has several diplomas in leadership, negotiations, consulting, sales, coaching, customer service, interpersonal communications and team building. As the former executive director of Alberta Ballet, she was instrumental in guiding the company on a course that took it from a significant deficit to a sustainable surplus position.