Bruce Coppock. Photo by Ann Marsden.
Bruce Coppock, a visionary orchestra administrator whose innovative ideas spurred experimentation at orchestras and conservatories, died on November 21 after a decade-long battle with cancer. He was 71. Trained as a cellist, Coppock moved into orchestra administration when a hand injury sidetracked his performing career. Following administrative and teaching roles at Boston conservatories, Coppock served as executive director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s, and then took senior positions at the League of American Orchestras, Carnegie Hall, and the Cleveland Orchestra. Coppock was long associated with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, where he served two different terms as managing director and president, from 1999 to 2008 and again from 2013 to 2016, when he retired.
Read Bruce Coppock’s “Radical Revenue” article, which proposed new business models for orchestras that challenged conventional thinking, originally published in the Winter 2008 issue of Symphony magazine.
Read his obituary in MPR News.
