Bobby Pape, Blue Heron’s new Executive Director, is a versatile nonprofit arts executive with over fifteen years of experience and a personal passion for promoting lesser-heard music and underrepresented creators. From 2021 until joining Blue Heron in October 2023, Bobby was Director of Development and Marketing of the Grammy Award-winning Albany Symphony, where he built and managed the organization’s annual earned and contributed revenue plans and guided a team of sales, marketing, and fundraising staff and consultants. Previously, Bobby served as the Executive Director of Boston Musica Viva—America’s oldest professional chamber music ensemble dedicated to commissioning and presenting contemporary music—for nearly a decade. His earlier work includes directing fundraising for Boston’s Cantata Singers and serving in a variety of marketing and development roles with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Bobby has also consulted for organizations including the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Bach, Beethoven & Brahms Society, and the Longwood Symphony.

Growing up outside of Rochester, New York, Bobby sang in church and school choirs until he realized he did his best work offstage. He studied journalism and worked in the music department at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he was the editor of the school’s newspaper and later the student representative to the university’s board of directors. Bobby is a podcast enthusiast, a decent cook, and an occasional outdoorsman who is glad to be relocating back to New England with his wife, Sam, and his cats, Fella and Simmy.