Jennifer Ritvo Hughes

Lecturer

Jennifer Ritvo Hughes (AR 530 – Managing Performing Arts Organizations) has spent the last 11 years leading performing arts organizations through a period of seismic change. She currently serves as CEO of the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In her role, she leads a national team that supports one of the world’s top orchestras by developing critical opportunities for cultural ambassadorship and raising friends and funds from the US and Canadian markets.

Previously Hughes served as Executive Director of Boston Baroque. As the chief administrative officer for America’s first Baroque orchestra and six-time GRAMMY nominee, she built a groundbreaking digital revenue stream that accounted for 30% of earned revenues, produced a brand new digital portfolio of 22 musical programs, 40 documentary shorts, 1 feature-length documentary, and one nationally-acclaimed children’s program, and improved the organization’s financial position, bringing balance sheets to positive net assets for the first time in a decade.

Prior to joining Boston Baroque, Hughes served as Executive Director of Cantata Singers for six and a half years. In her previous experience as Director of Publicity and Coordination for the Arts at Wellesley College, she led the promotion of the College’s public arts and cultural events and ran the Music Department’s Concert Series.

Hughes serves on the boards of the Boston Lyric Opera, the Surf Point Foundation, and North Star Baroque. She graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in music from Wellesley College, and earned a master’s degree in musicology from Brandeis University. A native of Newton, she lives in the town of Needham with her husband, who works as an attorney for UMass Memorial Health Care, and two daughters.