David Snead
Director of Marketing
New York Philharmonic
David Snead has been director of marketing for the New York Philharmonic since 2001. Prior to the New York Philharmonic, David led the marketing programs of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Guthrie Theater, Milwaukee Symphony, and Hartford Symphony. He has also served as associate marketing director of the Minnesota Orchestra, general manager of the Richmond Symphony, and executive director of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony.
Under David’s marketing leadership the New York Philharmonic has increased ticket sales $5.4 million (37 percent) and paid attendance by 49,000 seats (18 percent) in the past three years. Over his four-year tenure at the Guthrie Theater he increased ticket sales 81 percent and paid attendance by 50 percent.
David is one the nation’s leading instructors in performing arts marketing. He teaches the marketing section of the League of American Orchestras’ Essentials of Orchestra Management class and is the lead faculty member for the League’s Introduction to Orchestra Marketing seminars. The League also recently named him to lead their Executive Leadership course for fast-rising orchestra marketers.
He is a regular lecturer at New York University and the Manhattan School of Music, and has also lectured at the Juilliard School of Music, Carnegie Mellon University, and St. Olaf College. He has presented at the national conferences of the Association of British Orchestras, the Association of French Orchestras, the League of American Orchestras, Opera America, INTIX, and at the National Arts Marketing Project Conference.
He is the author of “Subscribe Now: 30 Years Later,” which ran in Symphony Magazine and is now being adapted for publication in American Theater. This fall he will speak at the National Conference of the Association of Nordic Orchestras in Finland.