LAWRENCE J. TAMBURRI, trustee
Lawrence Tamburri has been the Executive Director of the Newark School of the Arts since April 2013. He enjoyed a 30-year career as a symphony manager including serving as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) from 2004 to 2011. Prior to joining the PSO, he served in the same capacity for the New Jersey from 1991-2003, as well as Savannah and New Hampshire Symphony Orchestras.
During his tenure at the PSO, Tamburri drove the development and implementation of an innovative strategic plan. His direction led to a four-year increase in subscription ticket sales, resulting in a fourteen-year high for classical subscriptions. Working with the PSO’s Pops conductor Marvin Hamlisch’s innovative programming and marketing ideas, Pops tickets sales increased significantly, as well as additional run-out and tour performances. An $80-million capital campaign was launched in the fall of 2008 which exceeded its goal by November 2011. Also during Tamburri’s tenure, the orchestra traveled on six international tours, including its first in twenty-two years to mainland China, and released eleven internationally-acclaimed recordings. In 2007 the PSO hired its ninth music director, Manfred Honeck.
In 2002 Tamburri participated in the Alberto Vilar Project on Critical Issues for the Classical Performing Arts in Salzburg, Austria. Tamburri traveled to Yekaterinburg, Russia, in October of 2003 as a consultant to URAL/Siberian Arts organizations for the Fund for Arts and Culture of Eastern and Central Europe. In March 2004, he participated in the American Assembly’s public policy forum, “Creative Campus: The Training, Sustaining and Presenting of the Performing Arts in Higher Education.” In March 2010, The U.S. State Department sent Tamburri to conduct a week-long U.S. Speakers Program, “Managing Foundations for the Arts,” in Belgrade, Serbia.
Tamburri has been a lecturer in Arts Management at SUNY Purchase since 2012. He has served as a member of the adjunct faculty of Seton Hall University’s Graduate Arts Administration program, as well as the adjunct faculty of Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School of Public Policy. Tamburri has been a panelist for regional and national arts foundations, arts service organizations, and arts agencies including the NEA. He has been a guest speaker at national conferences of the League of American Orchestras and the Association of British Orchestras.
Tamburri’s publications include “Trust,”which appeared in the April 1997 issue of Harmony Journal, and “Factors that Influence Programming Decisions of U.S. Symphony Orchestras,” which he co-authored and which appeared in The Journal of Cultural Economicsin May 2011. He also co-author: “Repertoire Conventionality in Major US Symphony Orchestras: Factors Influencing Management’s Programming Choices”, Managerial And Decision Economics(November 2015);“Symphony Concert Demand: Does Programming Matter?”, The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society (November 2013); Fiddling in a Vortex: Have American Orchestras Squandered Their Supremacy on the American Cultural Scene?”, The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society”(2016); Subscription ticket Sales for Symphony Orchestras: Are Flexible Subscription Tickets Sustainable”?(2018); and, Marketing Strategies for Performing Arts Audiences: Characteristics of Ticket Purchases”, The Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing (2019).
Tamburri received a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from Duquesne University. He holds an MA in Music History and Literature, and an MBA from Arizona State University.