John Mangum

John Mangum is the General Director, President & CEO of Lyric Opera of Chicago, the fifth in the company’s history. Having joined Lyric in the fall of 2024, he brings more than two decades of leadership experience in the arts, most recently as Executive Director/CEO of the Houston Symphony, where he served from 2018 to 2024.

During his tenure at Houston, the organization raised significant funds to renovate its hall, strengthened its balance sheet by $60 million, appointed a new music director, and performed in-person and virtually for more than 1.1 million people during the pandemic season.

Mangum grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and began his career at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He subsequently held senior artistic planning roles at several of the country’s leading orchestras — the San Francisco Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Major initiatives at these orchestras included concert stagings of Fidelio, Peter Grimes, Bluebeard’s Castle, Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, John Cage’s Song Books, West Side Story, Company, and Amadeus. He also served as President and Artistic Director of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, overseeing all aspects of the Society’s operations, including the successful completion of its first-ever endowment campaign.

Mangum is an alumnus of the Impact Program for Arts Leaders at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. He holds a Ph.D. in history with a concentration in musicology, in addition to master’s and bachelor’s degrees in history, from the University of California, Los Angeles. His scholarly work looks at the intersection of Italian opera and political power in 18th century German-speaking Central Europe.

John Mangum is The Women’s Board Endowed Chair.