Janice Mancini Del Sesto

Janice Mancini Del Sesto earned a reputation for turning cultural institutions around. While serving as General Director of Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) from 1992-2008 she took the Company from a mainstage season of nine performances of three operas in an 850-seat theatre to as many as 28 performances of four productions in the 1,500-seat Shubert Theatre and grew its budget from $800,000-$8,000,0000+. BLO was the catalyst for history-making and award-winning initiatives including the first city-wide, multi-disciplinary thematic season, Egypt in Boston, a programming, educational, and marketing collaboration, and produced the first fully-staged outdoor opera performances, Carmen on the (Boston) Common, attracting 140,000 people. BLO’s strategic plan (The Balanced Scorecard) is still taught as a best practice case study at the Harvard Business School. In 2003 Boston Magazine named Ms. Del Sesto in its list of the city’s “100 Most Powerful Women.” She has been featured in articles and symposia on women and management. Ms. Del Sesto has been honored by colleges and universities including her alma mater, New England Conservatory of Music, where she received a degree in voice and music education. She was president of Sponsorship Consultants of Boston, a firm that identified, evaluated, and managed a wide range of arts sponsorships for corporations, PR and advertising firms, and non-profit clients. She also served as director of development and communications for the New England Foundation for the Arts. She has been a faculty member, lecturer, and/or featured speaker in the community and at New England Conservatory, Harvard Business School, Radcliffe Seminar Program, Northeastern University, and Boston University among others. She has been an NEC overseer, trustee and president of its alumni association and has served as a Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of OPERA America. Her organizational consulting includes strategic planning, executive search, fundraising, board development, and philanthropic planning for donors.