Borletti-Buitoni Trust appoints chief executive

Musical charity the Borletti-Buitoni Trust (BBT) has announced the appointment of Toby Smith to the role of chief executive, succeeding Susan Rivers who has stepped down after 20 years in the role.

Smith will take up his new role in January 2024, while Rivers will join BBT’s board of trustees from April 2024. Rivers has led the Trust since it was founded 20 years ago, overseeing its growth into a foundation that offers emerging musicians financial assistance as well as guidance and counsel in all aspects of their careers. She has also worked to help BBT musicians realise their recording, commissioning, performance and touring projects.

Ilaria Borletti Buitoni who co-founder BBT with her late husband Franco Buitoni said: ‘From the outset, the single most important role of BBT has been to support talented young musicians and enable music-making of the very highest quality. Susan’s passionate leadership and commitment to our artists and communities has achieved more than I could ever have imagined when we first had the idea of setting up the Trust… I have every confidence that we have made an excellent choice in Toby and we look forward to working together to take BBT into the future, to sustain and further develop our pledges to help young artists and communities.’

With a career in artistic and executive leadership lasting over 25 years, Smith brings to his role experience in roles including director of performance and programming at Royal Northern College of Music and festival director of Salisbury International Arts Festival. He has also worked with international artists in partnership with Greenwich + Docklands International Festival and Global Streets for FESTIVAL.ORG.

He said: ‘So many of BBT’s artists speak very warmly of the bespoke ways in which the Trust has offered them space to reflect and to experiment at a crucial time in their development, and the Trust’s more recent championing of extraordinary organisations who are connecting with the most marginalised communities through music is a success story to be celebrated and shared. Beyond exploring the rich counterpoint between these strands of the Trust’s work, I see BBT as perfectly positioned to nurture the leaders of a future where classical music’s remit and reach is broad, urgent, relevant and inclusive.’