
STRATEGIC PLAN HIGHLIGHTS
2023–2028
Read more about our 5-year strategic plan for H+H's growth.

OUR MISSION
The mission of the Handel and Haydn Society is to inspire the intellect, touch the heart, elevate the soul, and connect all of us with our shared humanity through transformative experiences with Baroque and Classical music.
OUR VISION
H+H will set the standard for musical experiences that are masterfully performed, historically informed, and passionately shared with the greater Boston community and beyond.
OUR VALUES
We believe that music is a powerful positive force that excites and inspires audiences from diverse backgrounds and communities. In particular, we believe Baroque and Classical music expresses the full range of the human experience and sparks us to look more deeply at ourselves and to connect with those around us.
We bring to life the spirit of creativity and innovation central to this music through our commitment to superb performances, dynamic repertoire, and historically informed performance practices that connect 21st century audiences directly with the composer’s intent.
We create inclusive, accessible, engaging experiences through music and learning that inspire creativity through connections made on stage, in the classroom, online, and beyond.
Above all, we believe that uniting today’s Bostonians through music and music-making is as important as it was when the Society first formed two centuries ago.


OUR STRATEGIC AMBITION
Over the next five years H+H will continue to focus its efforts on increasing its relevance to all in the greater Boston area who are moved by classical music, as well as classical audiences nationally and globally. We will create superior, singularly inspiring experiences with Baroque and Classical music distinguished by their artistic excellence, welcoming atmosphere, electric energy, and powerful connections among musicians, the audience, and the music. We will do this in a financially responsible manner that sustains and strengthens H+H as it enters its third century.
When we speak of relevance our frame is personal: creating deeply moving and impactful musical experiences for those we serve that make H+H stand apart as one of their most valued relationships. This plan calls for us to do so relentlessly, optimizing everything we do – our concerts, education programs, marketing and communications, fundraising, and customer experiences – to build greater personal meaning and connection.
THE PURSUIT OF RELEVANCE, RELENTLESSLY
This strategy of relentless relevance¹ calls for us, collectively, to be:
- Customer obsessed: knowing the attitudes and motivations of our current, past, and prospective new customers and donors thoroughly and putting those insights to work in designing our offerings
- Distinctively inspired: delivering musical experiences that stand apart for their level of inspiration, and for the level to which they inspire
- Persuasively innovative: thinking in fresh new ways about how to present musical experiences that motivate greater attendance and connection
- Ruthlessly pragmatic: measure and evaluate effectiveness, and act upon the results
- Serving a higher purpose: fulfill our mission to inspire, touch, elevate, and connect
¹ H+H’s concept of brand relevance has been inspired and adapted from David Aker, professor emeritus at the University of California Berkeley, who identified the five principles listed above.
OUR GOALS AND STRATEGIES



GOAL I: ARTISTIC PREEMINENCE
H+H will be become known as the preeminent ensembles of its kind in the nation, and one of the best in the world – acclaimed for transformative performances that inspire, elevate, and connect with a growing audience in Boston and beyond.
- Accelerate H+H’s drive towards artistic preeminence.
- Build H+H’s national and international brand
- Increase the variety of performance formats that enhance the ensemble’s artistic capabilities
- Increase the diversity of H+H’s musical talent and repertoire, not only to help increase H+H’s relevance to diverse communities, but also to enliven our concerts with fresh, less-familiar works and exciting new talent
GOAL II: AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
Increase H+H’s impact on greater Boston: grow the breadth and depth of concert programming to attract a larger, more diverse audience, and expand H+H’s learning programs to transform the lives of more students from a diversity of backgrounds.
Market research has identified strategies for making H+H matter more to more Boston classical music lovers. H+H will aggressively deploy those strategies over the next five years to create a larger, younger audience for its concerts.
COMMUNITY
Community access, engagement and connection has been part of H+H’s identity from its first concert in 1815 and helps explain how it has survived and thrived since. H+H’s Emancipation Proclamation Celebration concert, presented annually during First Night in collaboration with the Museum of African American History and Trinity Church Boston, is one example of this commitment. Our “Every Voice” concerts in churches in Roxbury and the South End are another; a third is the Crossing the Deep concert in June 2023 and again in January 2025.
LEARNING PROGRAMS
H+H’s seven youth choruses and its in-school School Partnership Program introduce the joy of music to over 1,000 young people annually. Over the next five years, we will significantly expand the impact and reach of our programming for students in elementary school through high school by increasing the number of students served, enhancing our curriculum and teaching skills, and experimenting with new delivery models.
GOAL III: FINANCIAL + ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY
Expand H+H’s financial and organizational capacity in ways that match and nurture its artistic growth and its impact on the community.
In the next five years H+H will grow as an institution, with new financial, organizational, and human resources that support H+H’s growth in audience, in learning programs, and in people served. Expanded concerts, broader geographic, racial, ethnic, and generational diversity organization-wide, and a deepened educational impact among Boston’s young people will create a virtuous circle, allowing us to attract growing numbers of annual donors and major supporters.