The executive MBA and the art of musical management

There is a buzz in the bustling café at London’s Royal Albert Hall, where Rosenna East, managing director of the Sinfonia of London, is talking about studying for an executive MBA. She too is excited, as the Sinfonia is preparing to perform in the world’s premier classical music festival, the BBC Proms.

East might also feel daunted: she is shepherding an orchestra with a long and distinguished history. The Sinfonia was formed in 1955, quickly establishing a reputation with Hollywood moviemakers through performances such as Bernard Herrmann’s soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Subsequent work by the orchestra includes Batman, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Lost in Space and The Lawnmower Man.

East was chosen to manage the Sinfonia in 2020 by conductor John Wilson, when he revived the orchestra after nearly two decades of inactivity. Since then, he has helped shape it into what The Guardian called a “handpicked supergroup” of classical music. This year was the Sinfonia’s fifth performing at the BBC Proms, a rare achievement for any orchestra, and a busy time for East.

“It is an exciting time of year for anyone in the classical music industry,” says the former violinist when we meet ahead of the Proms performance. She stirs her tea while checking notes on what she wants to say, someone who clearly likes to be on top of her brief.

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East had decided to enrol for an executive MBA before joining the Sinfonia, while general manager of Nevill Holt Opera, staging an annual summer arts and culture festival in the Leicestershire countryside — her first management role.

“I’d had five remarkable years [at Nevill Holt Opera] where the pace of learning was very concentrated,” she says. “We tripled turnover, developed a lot of new income streams, staged great opera productions, grew the festival and built a new theatre. Really I wanted to consolidate all that I had learnt and build on that [with the EMBA]. I also wanted to broaden my horizons.”

East was also keen to study part time to fit coursework around both her role at the Sinfonia — itself part-time — and freelance work as a consultant to music events in the UK and Italy. “One of the most directly useful modules for me on the EMBA was consulting to management, which was intense but showed me how better to structure and approach consulting projects,” she says. “I would go so far as to say it was invaluable.”

She chose Bayes Business School partly for its London location, believing it would draw a more diverse intake than other parts of the UK. East enrolled in the Modular Executive MBA, a part-time, two-year programme delivered over long weekends each month. She believed the format would appeal to internationally based executives willing to fly in for classes.

Bayes also offers a part-time EMBA with evening sessions, but she felt that version skewed towards London-based students and might lack the same cultural breadth. “It also suited my working pattern,” she says, adding that evening study sessions didn’t suit her preferences or the fact that she and her partner have a young child.

The location of the Bayes City of London campus, close to the Barbican arts centre and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, meant that East was not the only representative of the arts in her cohort. But she was keen to expand her network beyond her sector. “Like lots of industries, those in the arts can spend a lot of time talking to people like themselves,” East says.

“It was a pleasure to find among [the EMBA cohort] other representatives from the arts, including friends from dance and theatre backgrounds, but I also got to know people with very different experiences, such as a senior HR manager for a major airline working out of the Middle East, a representative from the pharmaceutical industry based in south-east Africa and a lead researcher on infectious diseases in a major London hospital.”

She also praises the school’s career service, in particular interview coaching, which has been helpful as she looks for new opportunities in her consultancy work.

In management I am too busy to think about why I am no longer a professional musician

East is an accomplished musician, who was co‑principal violinist in the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for nine years after graduating with a masters from the Royal College of Music, following a modern history degree from Oxford.

“When I hear the Sinfonia of London perform, it’s thrilling,” she says. “I take a particular pleasure in listening in on rehearsals, hearing the quality of the music making there. In those moments you feel part of it, and I know how it feels to play that stuff.”

But she has no regrets about moving into management roles. “Truthfully I find that in management I am too busy to think about why I am no longer a professional musician.” She says that her musical and business education were very different experiences, but both now help her in leadership roles in the arts, and she does not want to stop learning.

“The other thing I like about Bayes — though I haven’t taken it up yet — is the offer of free electives for the rest of your life,” she says. “I’m planning to do a couple of modules I did not do at the time of my EMBA, such as advanced strategy. I have realised that I love learning.”