Betsy Bleakie
Betsy Bleakie is the Festival Manager of Manchester Music Festival. Before
coming to work at Manchester Music Festival, Betsy spent years honing
her marketing and promotion skills in the fields of retail and fashion
merchandising, working with Victoria’s Secret catalog in the 1980s, and
playing a pivotal role in the brand’s development and expansion. After
moving to Vermont and transitioning to consultation and fundraising work
with local Southern Vermont library projects, including the Mark Skinner
Library and the Manchester Community Library, Betsy is now applying her
promotional development skills on behalf of Manchester Music Festival,
continuing the festival’s forward trajectory with an emphasis on outreach,
promotion, and community connection. time. Tenacity and preparedness
has helped me as I’ve moved up and
moved around and I view that an
asset. The beauty of chamber music
versus orchestral music is that it’s
theoretically more egalitarian; there’s
more opportunity for equality in the
music. [In a] small ensemble, you
can’t disappear into your section as
you can with an orchestra. I really
like that about chamber music.”
On Music On Manchester Music Festival
“I just watched the documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsburg and she said
something that spoke to me [about] her love of opera. She said, ‘It’s like
an electrical current that flows through me.’ When she said that, it really
resonated with me, because my daughter and I would always talk about how
music gives us chills. That’s what music can do for you. It’s emotional. It’s
spiritual, but it’s also physical. And I love that.” “What we provide with Manchester
Music Festival is first class. It’s
really fabulous to be part of an
organization that is contributing to
the arts and culture in our region.
We bring people together in different
stages of their careers. Our young
artists and our faculty can learn from
each other and connect, so that’s
really exciting.”
On Female Leadership
“I think things are changing. I was lucky in that as I was moving up the
corporate ladder, more women were entering the workforce at a pivotal
Betsy Bleakie, Festival Manager of Manchester Music Festival
manchester life magazine 2020 41