BUTI Advisory Council

Meet our Boston University Tanglewood Institute Advisory Council!

Cynthia Curme, Chair

Cindy is a classically trained pianist and graduate of Boston University College of Fine Arts (’76, ’80). She worked at the Boston Symphony Orchestra as part of the administration from 1984 to 1995, and she later served as a volunteer. Cindy is active with several arts organizations in the Greater Boston area, including as a trustee of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Conservatory, The Terezin Music Foundation and From the Top, an overseer of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and a member of the BUTI Advisory Council. Her husband, Ollie, retired as a general partner at Battery Ventures in 2005 after a 20-year career. The couple resides in Boston and Lenox, MA and have three grown sons, Henry, Chester, and Eli.

David Bear

Dr. David Bear is the founder of four companies – Senticare (acquired by RxAdvance), Covectra, PharmoRx Therapeutics, and MedSentry. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the latter three companies. Dr. Bear is a graduate of Harvard College and Medical School, formerly Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. David is an avid listener to classical music and jazz, both as an audiophile and Tanglewood-goer. His two sons are graduates of the Boston University Academy. David and his wife, Dr. Laurie Hammer, reside in Wellesley and Lenox, MA.

Bonnie Burman

Bonnie Burman and her husband, Terry, retired to the Berkshires full-time in 2012 for the beautiful surroundings but also for the cultural organizations that provide the special character that distinguishes the Berkshires. In addition to the BUTI Advisory Council, Bonnie serves as a Board Member of Barrington Stage and as an Overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Bonnie is originally from Los Angeles. She has a BA from UCLA, an MSW from UCLA, and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from USC. She was on the faculty of the School of Social Welfare at UCLA prior to moving to Akron, OH in 1995 for Terry’s career as CEO of the Signet Group. After moving to Akron, instead of teaching and research, Bonnie became very involved in her hobby of “performance dog sports.” She continues to train and show her Border Collies in competition obedience. While having absolutely no musical background, she has been a classical music enthusiast for many years as a regular attendee of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, and as a Board Member of the Akron Symphony Orchestra.

Peter J. Eliopoulos

Peter J. Eliopoulos is a Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of M&T Bank and Wilmington Trust. With more than 25 years of industry experience, Peter held prior positions at Citibank and at A.T. Kearney and Mitchell Madison Group. Peter is committed to the development and success of the arts community. In addition to serving as an Advisory Council member of Boston University Tanglewood Institute, he serves on the Board of Directors for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and has been a member of the New York Philharmonic society. He also serves on the NYU Stern Alumni Board and is an active member of the Hellenic American Bankers Association (HABA).  Peter holds a Masters of Business Administration from NYU Stern School of Business, a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University, and pursued his love of orchestral music at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.

Marian Godfrey

Marian Godfrey has devoted her career to supporting artists and the arts as a nonprofit manager, a grants officer, and a donor. She has played a leadership role in building the field of arts policy and research. Currently she serves on arts organization boards and advisory committees as an advocate for advancing equity and justice within and through the arts community. She retired from the Pew Charitable Trusts in 2011, having directed its local and national culture initiatives since 1989. Prior to arriving at Pew in 1989, Ms. Godfrey had an extensive background in nonprofit arts management, handling production, administration, fund raising, and strategic planning for organizations including Mabou Mines and Dance Theater Workshop. She produced film and video projects, including a feature-length film for Mabou Mines that aired on public television nationwide.

Additionally, she has worked as a consultant both for performing arts organizations and for foundation and corporate programs. She has been a contributing writer to Grantmakers in the Arts’ Reader and numerous other publications. Ms. Godfrey was a member of the Presidential Transition Committee in 1992 and the Biden-Harris campaign’s arts policy committee in 2020. She has served on advisory panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, and ArtsEmerson, and on the boards of Theatre Communications Group, Grantmakers in the Arts, the Maine College of Art, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Poetry Foundation, and the League of American Orchestras. In 2003 she received the John Cotton Dana Award for Leadership for contributions to museum education from the American Association of Museums.  She was the founding chair of the National Arts Policy Roundtable, convened by Americans for the Arts and the Sundance Institute. She currently serves on the boards of Beth Morrison Projects and of TDC, which offers consulting and research services driving strategic change in nonprofit organizations. She is a member of the Advisory Council of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.

Ms. Godfrey is a graduate of Radcliffe College and Yale University School of Drama. She is married to Thomas J. Gardner and divides her time between Richmond, Massachusetts and Vinalhaven, Maine.

Susan Grausman

Susan Grausman is a founding board member of Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), as well as a trustee of the The Mahaiwe and Shakespeare & Co.  She is a graduate of Lesley College and holds an MA in Education from Columbia University.  Susan has two daughters: one who is an alumna of BUTI, and is now a singer, actor, and producer. Her other daughter is an award-winning filmmaker. Susan and her husband Richard, who is the Founder and Chairman of C-CAP, reside in New York City and have a seasonal home in Lenox, where they are active in the  arts and cultural community.

Carrie Hammond

Carrie Hammond spent much of her career in the private sector, serving in leadership positions in sales, marketing, finance, corporate responsibility, and business development. She has maintained strong ties to classical music all along, including service as a board member and soprano with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and The Copley Singers. In recent years, Carrie has translated her business and artistic acumen to the cultural sector, serving as President and CEO of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and now as Director of Business Development for Infinity Hall & Bistro in Hartford. Carrie received her BA from Wellesley College and her MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business.

Seth Johnson

Seth Johnson has spent most of his career in the retail industry. Among his many positions, he served as CEO of Pacific Sunwear of California, and previous to that as COO and CFO of Abercrombie and Fitch. He has also taught at Chapman University. He currently serves on the boards of Tilly’s Inc., bebe stores Inc., and the Pacific Symphony. Mr. Johnson holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA in Economics from Yale University. As a high school student he attended Boston University Tanglewood Institute as a violin player.

Charlotte Lee

Charlotte Lee is the President and Founder of Primo Artists, one of the leading artist management agencies in North America. Based in New York, Primo Artists prides itself on its selective roster of several of the world’s finest classical artists: violinists Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell and Nicola Benedetti; pianists Beatrice Rana and Seong-Jin Cho; conductors Cristian Măcelaru, James Gaffigan, Christian Reif and Gemma New; and composer Wynton Marsalis.

As a leader in social media with over 20,000followers of its channels, Primo Artists recently expanded into Social Media Management and now represents a growing roster of Social Media clients to optimize and build artists’ presence in an ever-evolving digital world.

Lee is also the Founder of PAMAC –Performing Arts Managers and Agents Coalition –the only network of 250+ U.S. artist managers, booking agents and independent producers in the performing arts industry. The coalition has equitably represented every segment of the arts sector in its advocacy to Congress for the passage of the “Save Our Stages” Act to provide $15 Billion in grants for live music venues, cultural institutions, talent agencies and independent movie theaters. Signed into law on December 27, 2020, the act, known as the Shuttered Venues Operators Grant, is the largest public rescue of the arts and entertainment industry in U.S. history.

A trained violinist, Lee has over 20 years of experience in the music industry and prior to founding Primo Artists, she was a Senior Vice President at IMG Artists where she worked for 17 years. In 2015, Musical America named her as one of the top “30 Professionals of the Year” for her influence in the classical music business. For more information, visit www.primoartists.com and www.artsrelief.org.

Margery Steinberg

Margery Steinberg is an emeritus professor of marketing at the University of Hartford. Margy was one of the founders of Upper Albany Main Street through her collaborations with the Upper Albany Merchants Association and the Metro Hartford Alliance. She is currently a consultant and visiting professor at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and is active in many cultural organizations, including serving as an Overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and a Board Member and Past President of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Margy received her BA from Boston University and her MA, MBA and PhD from the University of Connecticut.

Doug Tornquist

Doug Tornquist (BUTI ’79) is a freelance tuba player and teaches at the University of Southern California, California Institute of the Arts, and the Colburn School. He has played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Opera, Pacific Symphony, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and regional orchestras. He has recorded with Diana Krall, Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, Josh Groban, Randy Newman, Meatloaf, and Beck, among others. Doug has played on the soundtracks of over 500 films, tv shows, and video games, including Edward Scissorhands, Wreck it Ralph, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and The Big Friendly Giant. Among his more notable recordings are the Grammy winning premiere of the Penderecki Credo (with the Oregon Bach Festival) and two recordings with Quintadillac, a German brass quintet. Doug recently released a solo CD, Feels Like Far, and produced a CD of holiday brass music, Fiat Lux. He regularly records for Alexandre Desplat, Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson Williams, James Newton Howard, Randy Newman, Christophe Beck, and many other composers, and has performed with conductors Erich Leinsdorf, Pierre Boulez, Salonen Dudamel, David Zinman, Witold Lutoskawski, Yuri Temirkanov, Valerie Gergeiv, and Zubin Mehta. Doug received his BA at the University of Southern California, and his MA from Wichita State University. Doug was a prize winner at the 1997 International Tuba and Euphonium Competition in Riva del Garda, Italy.

John C. Yates

John C. Yates, proud parent of a 2005 BUTI alumnus, is the partner-in-charge of the Technology Practice at Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP. Mr. Yates is one of the pioneers of the technology law field and has been practicing exclusively in this area for over 25 years.  Internationally recognized, Mr. Yates has founded and been a member of the Board of Directors of leading technology organizations for more than three decades.  He is currently co-authoring a book, entitled “The Art of Business Friendship” and is a columnist for various online technology and legal publications. Culturally, Mr. Yates serves as a Board Member of the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia. He received his BA and JD degrees from Duke University, where he was the Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholar.