Bettina Mehne
Bettina Mehne has held leadership roles across Europe’s classical-music industry for over two decades. In 2013, she left her position as Head of Artistic Planning at the Wiener Konzerthaus and shifted her focus back to the artist management side of the business, co-founding the online platform HELLO STAGE, dedicated to connecting musicians, managers, and presenters worldwide. Being the co-author of the widely acclaimed book, How to Be Your Own Manager, earned her the Artist Manager of the Year award from the Association of British Orchestras in 2018. Bettina also taught self-management and strategic career planning at Bard College, Folkwang University of the Arts (Essen), Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin, Barenboim-Said Academy, and the Musikhochschule Munich, Karlsruhe, and Vienna.
Bettina now works as a consultant across several classical-music ventures, including Primo Artists, collaborating on projects in German-speaking territories and advising emerging artists seeking management in individual consultations.
As Head of Artistic Planning at the Wiener Konzerthaus for six seasons, Bettina curated hundreds of concerts annually, presenting leading international orchestras such as the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Mariinsky Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Simon Bolivar Orchestra and many more. Other major projects included curating opera in concert performances with artists including Anna Netrebko, Elīna Garanča, and Thomas Hampson as well as re-discovering lost gems like “Wallenstein” by Jaromir Weinberger.
Previously Bettina served as Artistic Manager of The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, overseeing worldwide touring and artistic planning in collaboration with the orchestra’s musicians. During her tenure, she helped shape the orchestra’s international breakthrough under Daniel Harding and later Paavo Järvi, including the acclaimed Beethoven symphony cycle that brought the ensemble to major festivals and earned multiple awards.
Prior to that, she opened the German office of Van Walsum Management within Konzertdirektion Schmid and was Orchestra Manager of the Staatstheater Mainz. She began her professional path in the touring department of HarrisonParrott in London.
A Berlin native from a family of violin makers, Bettina studied musicology and art history in Vienna and her hometown while working with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin as their tour manager and in the office of the Berliner Festwochen coordinating the Berlin residency of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.