Richard Ortner collection, 1988-2018

Music administrator Richard Ortner (1948-2019) was raised in Great Neck, New York. Trained in classical piano, he studied architecture at Cooper Union before to New York University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Music in 1970. That same year, he began ushering at Carnegie Hall, which led to a job as a guide during the 1973 Tanglewood Music Festival season, after which he was hired as the Assistant to the Administrator, and later Administrator, of the Berkshire Music Center (now Tanglewood Music Center). In 1998, he left Tanglewood to become President of the Boston Conservatory, a position he held until his retirement in 2017. During his tenure as president, he expanded the Conservatory faculty and facilitated its 31 Hemenway renovation and 132 Ipswich purchase. Ortner also co-orchestrated the 2016 merger between the Conservatory and Berklee College of Music.