Susan Mathieson Mayer

Director of Communications
Lyric Opera of Chicago

Susan Mathieson Mayer has earned an international reputation for arts marketing and is widely acknowledged as one of the leading practitioners in the field today.

For the past 22 years, she has been the director of marketing and communications for Lyric Opera of Chicago, completely selling out the season for sixteen consecutive seasons – a record unequaled in the performing arts field. During her tenure, she has increased subscriptions for the company by more than 50%, and sold close to $500,000,000 in tickets for Lyric. Ticket sales for Lyric Opera top $26 million annually, providing close to 60% of company’s operating revenues – another record for the field.

In 2000, she was named one of the country’s Top 100 Marketers by Advertising Age – the only professional in the arts to be nominated.

She has also been the subject of features in media including the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, Crain’s Chicago Business, the Financial Times and the BBC. Ms. Mathieson Mayer has taught arts marketing courses at institutions including Northwestern University and Canada’s Simon Fraser University.

Prior to joining Lyric, she headed her own arts marketing firm. Clients included the National Arts Centre, where she increased box office revenues for the orchestra by 25% in one year.  She was also director of marketing for the arts festival of the 1986 World’s Fair, where she sold out 102 of the 106 events. While at the Vancouver Symphony, she built the subscription base to 42,000 – at the time, the largest orchestra subscription audience in the world. Prior to entering arts marketing and public relations, Ms. Mathieson Mayer was public relations manager for a major Canadian advertising agency, and worked in radio and television.

She is an Edmonton native, and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Washington’s School of Communications.

Presentations

• Campus Connection: Engaging College Students in the Arts