Henry Fogel is one of America’s most esteemed performing arts administrators, with a career dating back to 1963. From 1981–1985 he was Executive Director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C. From 1985–2003 he was President of the Chicago Symphony Orchestras. From 2003–2008 he served as President and CEO of the League of American Orchestras, and spent the following year remaining with the League as a field consultant to orchestras. From 2009–2019 he served as Dean of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where he is now Dean Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of the Arts.

He was an artistic consultant to the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra in Brazil from 2008-2016, and has consulted for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Edinburgh Festival. Mr. Fogel has also been a reviewer of recordings for Fanfare magazine since 1986, and has contributed several entries to The Harvard Dictionary of Music. He has been a judge for conducting and other competitions in Chicago, New York, Montreal, Tokyo, Helsinki, and Sofia Bulgaria.

He has received honorary doctorate degrees from Roosevelt University, Northwestern University, the Curtis Institute, and Columbia College in Chicago. In 1999 Mr. Fogel received a Cultural Leadership Citation from Yale University for service to the cultural life of the nation. In June, 2009, he received the highest honor in the symphony orchestra field, the League of American Orchestras’ Gold Baton Award. In 1990 was named by Business Week magazine as one of the five best managers of cultural organizations in the United States. In 2003 he was honored by the Illinois Arts Alliance as an Illinois Arts Legend.

Mr. Fogel has also served as a narrator with a number of orchestras, and has appeared as a narrator on CDs on the Albany and Naxos labels. He has also produced a number of internationally syndicated radio programs for Chicago’s Fine Arts Station WFMT, including currently Collectors’ Corner, which is derived from his extensive personal collection of over 30,000 classical recordings. He was for many years a regular panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Broadcast Quiz. He has also written program notes for a number of recording companies and orchestras.