Obituary for Walter W. Pierce
Walter Pierce, storied arts leader, impresario, and head of Celebrity Series of Boston for over 30 years, passes away on July 7, 2022, at the age of 91
Walter Pierce, the arts administrator and impresario who stewarded the Celebrity Series of Boston for over 30 years, passed away on July 7, 2022, at the age of 91. During Pierce’s tenure, which began in the 1950s and lasted until his retirement in 1996, the organization evolved into one of Boston’s most enduring nonprofit arts organizations. Pierce championed beloved artists such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Vladimir Horowitz, tenor Luciano Pavarotti, violinist Itzak Perlman, soprano Renee Fleming, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and many more. His long career at Celebrity Series can be summed up in the words of longtime Boston Globe classical music critic Richard Dyer, “Walter Pierce always did know how to do things right.”
Born on November 1,1930 in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Walter Piasecki and Regina Szepalek Piasecki, Walter Pierce graduated from Rindge Technical High School in Cambridge in 1947 and from Boston University in 1952. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in September 1952, and served for two years, most of it in Germany. Pierce then moved to New York City, working for the advertising firm of Ruthrauff and Ryan before joining the theatrical publicity firm of Max Eisen. While with Eisen, Pierce promoted Broadway and off-Broadway shows, including Yiddish Theatre productions and the summer tent productions of St. John Terrell who conceived ‘Broadway Under the Big Top,’ known as the Music Circus.
He returned to Boston to pursue a master's degree in Public Relations at Boston University, following which he joined the South Shore Music Circus, a summer tent theater in Cohasset, Massachusetts as publicity director. In Cohasset’s off-season he freelanced as a publicist, promoting the Boston premiere of Federico Fellini’s film, La Strada, as well as being the lead promoter for the Metropolitan Opera’s annual tour to Boston.
During his second season at the South Shore Music Circus, Pierce was introduced to Boston impresario Aaron Richmond, who offered him a position with the Boston University Celebrity Series. He continued his freelance career until 1960 when he came to Celebrity Series on a full-time basis. Following Aaron Richmond’s death in 1965, Pierce briefly co-managed the Boston University Celebrity Series with Mrs. Richmond.
Pierce then assumed the sole managing directorship of the Celebrity Series and continued in that capacity until his retirement in 1996. Through the years, Pierce expanded the number of presentations and broadened the range of programming for Celebrity Series. He is estimated to have presented over 1,500 concerts and events including the Boston debuts of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, violinist Joshua Bell, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Paul Taylor Dance Company, dancers Twyla Tharp & Mikhail Baryshnikov, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, pianist Evgeny Kissin, and countless others.
Under Pierce’s guidance, the Series added major educational and artist debut elements to its activities—Project Discovery, Family Musik, CitiMusic, and the Emerging Artists Series. He also served as president of the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA), as well as on several Greater Boston performing arts trade and service organizations.
Walter is survived by his wife, pianist Margaret Ulmer, his sister Tess (Natick, MA) and family, and his daughters Melinda Pierce (Chief Legislative Director of the Sierra Club in Washington D.C.) and Susannah Keefe (Founder and Director of Go Bananas Dancing in Arlington, VA) and their families from his first marriage to Betty Ann Pierce, whom he met and worked with at the Celebrity Series.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Walter Pierce Annual Performance Fund.
--Celebrity Series of Boston, July 8, 2022--
And an Appreciation. . .
During his years with the Celebrity Series and after his retirement, Walter captivated family, friends, and colleagues with droll, often humorous tales of backstage and offstage life at the Celebrity Series, peppered with amusing stories about the music business in general. Despite numerous requests from friends and colleagues to collect these anecdotes in a memoir, he preferred to spend his time in retirement reading extensively and writing fiction—short stories about the music business, his Polish upbringing, and (as a film noir devotee) stories about the darker shades of life, often set in the area around Hull Beach and Bare Cove Neck in the Hingham area of Massachusetts, his home for many years. He was a co-founder of the Writers’ Group at the St. Botolph Club in Boston, of which he was a longtime member. During his tenure as a presenter at the Harvard Musical Association, he gave teen-aged cellist Yo-Yo Ma his first performance in the Boston area.
An avid traveler, he had the time after retirement to take numerous trips with his wife, Margaret, to sites in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. (While touring, he would peruse the guidebooks while Margaret took the pictures.)
To his family, friends, and colleagues, Walter was known as a kind, modest, and unselfish friend. As an impresario, he loved his artists—a feeling they reciprocated, establishing his reputation in the music world as a true gentleman in the business. His memorial plaque on a towering Norway spruce at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge reads:
Walter William Pierce 1930-2022
Impresario Friend to artists, beloved by his family.
--Margaret Ulmer, 12/15/2022
Walter Pierce, the arts administrator and impresario who stewarded the Celebrity Series of Boston for over 30 years, passed away on July 7, 2022, at the age of 91. During Pierce’s tenure, which began in the 1950s and lasted until his retirement in 1996, the organization evolved into one of Boston’s most enduring nonprofit arts organizations. Pierce championed beloved artists such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Vladimir Horowitz, tenor Luciano Pavarotti, violinist Itzak Perlman, soprano Renee Fleming, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and many more. His long career at Celebrity Series can be summed up in the words of longtime Boston Globe classical music critic Richard Dyer, “Walter Pierce always did know how to do things right.”
Born on November 1,1930 in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Walter Piasecki and Regina Szepalek Piasecki, Walter Pierce graduated from Rindge Technical High School in Cambridge in 1947 and from Boston University in 1952. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in September 1952, and served for two years, most of it in Germany. Pierce then moved to New York City, working for the advertising firm of Ruthrauff and Ryan before joining the theatrical publicity firm of Max Eisen. While with Eisen, Pierce promoted Broadway and off-Broadway shows, including Yiddish Theatre productions and the summer tent productions of St. John Terrell who conceived ‘Broadway Under the Big Top,’ known as the Music Circus.
He returned to Boston to pursue a master's degree in Public Relations at Boston University, following which he joined the South Shore Music Circus, a summer tent theater in Cohasset, Massachusetts as publicity director. In Cohasset’s off-season he freelanced as a publicist, promoting the Boston premiere of Federico Fellini’s film, La Strada, as well as being the lead promoter for the Metropolitan Opera’s annual tour to Boston.
During his second season at the South Shore Music Circus, Pierce was introduced to Boston impresario Aaron Richmond, who offered him a position with the Boston University Celebrity Series. He continued his freelance career until 1960 when he came to Celebrity Series on a full-time basis. Following Aaron Richmond’s death in 1965, Pierce briefly co-managed the Boston University Celebrity Series with Mrs. Richmond.
Pierce then assumed the sole managing directorship of the Celebrity Series and continued in that capacity until his retirement in 1996. Through the years, Pierce expanded the number of presentations and broadened the range of programming for Celebrity Series. He is estimated to have presented over 1,500 concerts and events including the Boston debuts of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, violinist Joshua Bell, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Paul Taylor Dance Company, dancers Twyla Tharp & Mikhail Baryshnikov, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, pianist Evgeny Kissin, and countless others.
Under Pierce’s guidance, the Series added major educational and artist debut elements to its activities—Project Discovery, Family Musik, CitiMusic, and the Emerging Artists Series. He also served as president of the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA), as well as on several Greater Boston performing arts trade and service organizations.
Walter is survived by his wife, pianist Margaret Ulmer, his sister Tess (Natick, MA) and family, and his daughters Melinda Pierce (Chief Legislative Director of the Sierra Club in Washington D.C.) and Susannah Keefe (Founder and Director of Go Bananas Dancing in Arlington, VA) and their families from his first marriage to Betty Ann Pierce, whom he met and worked with at the Celebrity Series.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Walter Pierce Annual Performance Fund.
--Celebrity Series of Boston, July 8, 2022--
And an Appreciation. . .
During his years with the Celebrity Series and after his retirement, Walter captivated family, friends, and colleagues with droll, often humorous tales of backstage and offstage life at the Celebrity Series, peppered with amusing stories about the music business in general. Despite numerous requests from friends and colleagues to collect these anecdotes in a memoir, he preferred to spend his time in retirement reading extensively and writing fiction—short stories about the music business, his Polish upbringing, and (as a film noir devotee) stories about the darker shades of life, often set in the area around Hull Beach and Bare Cove Neck in the Hingham area of Massachusetts, his home for many years. He was a co-founder of the Writers’ Group at the St. Botolph Club in Boston, of which he was a longtime member. During his tenure as a presenter at the Harvard Musical Association, he gave teen-aged cellist Yo-Yo Ma his first performance in the Boston area.
An avid traveler, he had the time after retirement to take numerous trips with his wife, Margaret, to sites in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. (While touring, he would peruse the guidebooks while Margaret took the pictures.)
To his family, friends, and colleagues, Walter was known as a kind, modest, and unselfish friend. As an impresario, he loved his artists—a feeling they reciprocated, establishing his reputation in the music world as a true gentleman in the business. His memorial plaque on a towering Norway spruce at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge reads:
Walter William Pierce 1930-2022
Impresario Friend to artists, beloved by his family.
--Margaret Ulmer, 12/15/2022