The Lyric Opera of Chicago has announced its next leader: John Mangum, currently the executive director and chief executive officer of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Mangum will become Lyric’s fifth general director, replacing the retiring Anthony Freud, whose last day is Wednesday. Mangum, 49, will begin his new job in Chicago in the fall with the date yet to be determined.
“The big ambitions are to continue to grow in the direction that the company has been growing,” Mangum said in a telephone interview. “That means maintaining the commitment to world-class opera at the highest possible level while also committing to new works and to growing our audience.”
Mangum has been at the Houston Symphony since 2018. Although he never has led a dedicated opera company, Mangum previously held artistic planning roles at the San Francisco Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He also has worked at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, becoming artistic administrator and developing the orchestra’s programs at the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall.
“There is a lot of commonalities at large performing arts organizations,” he said. “We all are talking about attendance and audience and the need to raise funds. These jobs have evolved over time and grown to encompass more and there are both artistic and management components to this job. There is far more in common between an orchestra and an opera company than there are differences.”
Mangum has seen considerable success when it comes to building and maintaining classical music audiences in Houston, even in the aftermath of the pandemic. During the 2020-21 season, a time when most U.S. orchestras were on hiatus, the Houston Symphony played live to more than 1 million patrons, Mangum told the Houston Chronicle in 2021. He also raised funds for a $60 million campaign to renovate Jones Hall, the orchestra’s home.
Bryan Traubert, who led Lyric’s search, referred in a statement to Mangum as “a 21st-century performing arts leader with unmatched experience and acumen in the classical music space.” Lyric board chair Sylvia Neil called Mangum a “proven leader” and said his “very strong credentials as a CEO, as well as his artistic management background and music intellectualism, will bring vision, insight, and a fresh perspective to Lyric.”
Mangum, a native of the San Fransisco area who is married with one son, said he has visited both Lyric and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra many times but is otherwise new to the city. Mangum holds a doctorate in musicology, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in history, from the University of California, Los Angeles. His doctoral dissertation looked at the spread of Italian opera in 18th century German-speaking Central Europe.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com