Canada’s Montréal Symphony Orchestra Hires New CEO

Acclaimed executive Mélanie La Couture will assume the role as of July 2024

The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) has announced Mélanie La Couture as its next chief executive officer, succeeding Madeleine Careau, who will be leaving her position at the end of this June after nearly 25 years of heading the OSM’s administrative department.

To begin her tenure in July 2024, La Couture was selected following an elaborate international recruitment process by the board of directors after Careau announced her departure. The recruitment committee was created by the OSM board and supported by an executive search firm.

Her selection also recognized her managerial experience, people skills, expertise in philanthropic development, and well-articulated vision regarding OSM’s future; the recruitment committee’s recommendation for her was unanimously adopted by the board of directors.

A graduate of Polytechnique Montréal and the University of Western Ontario, where she holds an MBA, La Couture has played a pivotal role at the Montreal Heart Institute since 2013, first as managing director of the institution’s Foundation, and the last seven years as a member of the board of directors and as president and CEO of the Institute. 

Previously, she spent 11 years with the OSM in the position of chief operating officer from 2007 to 2013. Earlier in her career, she worked as a management consultant for major international companies. 

“La Couture is a top-level executive who, the board is convinced, will help the OSM continue pursuing excellence, innovation, and commitment to the community,” said OSM’s board of directors’ president, Lucien Bouchard in the press release. “We’re thrilled that she's agreed to put her talents, experience and vision to work once again for the benefit of the OSM and its several audiences,” Bouchard added. “Rafael Payare, our inspiring Music Director, together with Mélanie La Couture, an accomplished leader, will form a solid tandem in the years ahead, one that I have no doubt will guide the OSM superbly — in among other ways by helping it shine even more brightly in the world of classical music.”

“It’s an honor for me to be returning to the OSM as chief executive officer,” La Couture expressed. “Since leaving the Orchestra in 2013 l’ve continued, albeit from a distance, to follow the activities of this great cultural institution, and I couldn't be more enthusiastic about working with the top-quality administrative teams now in place, as well as with Rafael Payare, whose creativity, dynamism and eagerness to be part of the Montréal and Québec communities are beyond question. The OSM’s administrative and artistic foundations are as solid as can be, and I'm excited at the idea of adding my contribution to those of the Orchestra's workers and musicians.”