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Aubrey Bergauer is Shaking up the Symphony
Southwest Airlines Magazine
Behind it all is Bergauer, a fast-talking, blog-writing, numbers-wielding marketing maestro…redefining the classical concert experience as we know it. >> MORE
What a Symphony Manager Can Teach Business Owners About Customer Engagement
September 2023 | Inc Magazine
Aubrey Bergauer ran the California Symphony for five years and learned that she had to rethink the way arts companies go to market. Nonprofits and startups have more in common than meets the eye. MORE >>
Revenue is Liberation
July 2023 | Classical Music Magazine
With her data-led approach proven to grow classical audiences, it’s no wonder arts administrator Aubrey Bergauer’s skillset is highly in demand. MORE >>
How the Performing Arts World Uses Cyber Analytics to Build Audiences
May 2022 | San Francisco Classical Voice
In today’s market, Bergauer is convinced, data analytics are the gold standard of forward-looking arts management….The solution, Bergauer emphasizes again and again in her popular seminars, is learning to ask the right questions. MORE >>
Explaining Aubrey Bergauer’s extraordinary success through the lens of business theory
May 2021 | Culture for Hire
What was the driving factor behind this astounding coup? From the perspective of the Jobs to Be Done theory, three facets of Aubrey’s work predestined her success… MORE >>
Musicians on How to Bring Racial Equity to Auditions
September 2020 | New York Times
Whom we invite and recruit makes a difference… If we’re trying to redesign the process, ask the people who are being marginalized what we should do. MORE >>
50 Strategies for Becoming a Thought Leader in Your Field
April 2020 | Entrepreneur Magazine
“I’ve learned the more I put a stake in the ground in terms of what I’m working toward and what I stand for, the more and more other people who are attracted to that same goal and purpose come into my orbit.” MORE >>
Aubrey Bergauer Is Writing a New Script for Classical Music Engagement
January 2020 | San Francisco Classical Voice
Aubrey Bergauer is one who has broken through the clef ceiling of the classical music world, no less from the stodgy, fearful world of regional orchestras… She’s learned to say “don’t mess with me” in a nice way. MORE >>
Aubrey Bergauer on Why Positivity Always Wins
December 2019 | Thrive Global
So often all we hear is negativity about the things that don’t work or aren’t working… I’ve found that when you cast a vision for a better future and demonstrate with action and data to back it up that growth at a nonprofit arts organization and the industry is possible, that’s leadership. MORE >>
How to Market Classical Music: A Conversation with Aubrey Bergauer
December 2019 | LA Review of Books
In Silicon Valley terms, the best way to describe Bergauer is as the Sheryl Sandberg of the Symphony… Bergauer has built a business model for the orchestra that works in 2019 — and, most importantly, a model that can be replicated elsewhere. MORE >>
Call Off the Requiem: The Classical Music Business Is Not Dead Just Yet
September 2019 | Observer
According to Aubrey Bergauer—who has been called ‘the Steve Jobs of classical music’ by colleagues in her sector due to her Midas-like ability to turn around sluggish money-losing orchestras, reversing decades-old trend lines pointing toward fewer (and older) ticket holders—the problem is actually quite simple. MORE >>
California Symphony chief Aubrey Bergauer is going solo
June 2019 | San Francisco Chronicle
Aubrey Bergauer, the dynamic and innovative administrator whose five-year tenure as executive director of the California Symphony helped revitalize the orchestra’s audience base and bottom line, will leave the organization on Aug. 15 to work as an independent arts consultant. MORE >>
The California Symphony doubled its audience using data. How is the Pittsburgh Symphony using data?
May 2019 | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“The way we’ve been so data driven, that absolutely should get easier as you get bigger,” said Aubrey Bergauer, president and CEO of the California Symphony. “I think it scales up easier than it scales down, to be honest.” MORE >>
How did California Symphony increase ticket sales? By listening to its audience.
May 2019 | San Francisco Chronicle
Knowing what the audience will and won’t go along with is part of the data-driven mission that Bergauer, 36, brought with her when she came to the Bay Area... A quick-talking dynamo, she bristles with statistics, ideas and sharp new perspectives on the challenges facing symphony orchestras in the 21st century. MORE >>
Aubrey Bergauer is Shaking up the Symphony
April 2019 | Southwest Airlines Magazine
Behind it all is Bergauer, a fast-talking, blog-writing, numbers-wielding marketing maestro who knows millennials because she is one herself. “My goal is to change the narrative for orchestras. It’s beyond one organization,” Bergauer says… MORE >>
California Symphony Blows the Roof off the Joint
September 25, 2018 | San Francisco Classical Voice
It couldn’t be clearer that since Cabrera and Bergauer were brought on a few years ago, this orchestra has exploded in terms of enthusiasm, audience engagement, and ambition… MORE >>
Donato Cabrera, Aubrey Bergauer propel California Symphony forward
September 18, 2018 | The Mercury News
Contrary to popular belief, the Bay Area’s classical music scene is alive, well and thriving. For examples, look no further than the California Symphony… MORE >>
Rethinking Subscriptions
Summer 2018 Issue | Symphony magazine
In addition to expanding its subscription offerings, the California Symphony has entirely rethought its audience development model, focusing on the retention of its current audience rather than pursuing new acquisitions who come once, and then never return. Bergauer calls it “the long haul” method… MORE >>
CI To Eye with Aubrey Bergauer: Bucking Trends with Disciplined Communication
February 20, 2018 | Capacity Interactive [Podcast]
Erik and Aubrey talked about the California Symphony's "Orchestra X" project to better understand user experience…They also discussed the California Symphony's disciplined approach to patron communication, as well as their recent Public Organizational Commitment to Diversity across programming, staffing, and the board... MORE >>
What one brilliant arts organization can teach us about fundraising
January 18, 2018 | Hands On Fundraising
How the California Symphony does it? The short version: relentless focus on the customer’s journey with the organization. This involves a next step for everyone they are connected with. And here’s the important part: they market and offer ONLY that next step… MORE >>
Luring Millennials Into the Concert Hall
February 21, 2017 | The Wall Street Journal
Anybody who has anything to do with a fine-arts organization would do well to pay a visit to [California Symphony]. It points the way to a new style of audience outreach—one that’s not for millennials only... MORE >>
What our new audience wants
January 27, 2017 | Greg Sandow
Over and over I’ve said that our classical music world doesn’t feel like the world outside, the world most people live in…But one organization that did something to address the problem, bigtime, is the California Symphony, spearheaded by its executive director, Aubrey Bergauer… MORE >>
California Symphony Back in Black Under New Executive Director
September 15, 2015 | San Francisco Classical Voice
Since her arrival, Bergauer has erased the previous year's shortfall of $280,000 and brought the ledger almost to zero — even as the budget increased by 15 percent this year. She has doubled the number of donor households over the previous year; increased individual giving by a third; increased per concert paid attendance by an average of 16 percent over the last season; and inaugurated a collaboration with Postmodern Jukebox… MORE >>
California Symphony’s future looks bright with Aubrey Bergauer on board
August 13, 2015 | The Mercury News
When Aubrey Bergauer started her job as executive director of the California Symphony in 2014, she arrived with a mission — to save an organization that was struggling and deeply in debt. Flash forward to today… MORE >>