MA Top 30 Professional: Alejandra Valarino Boyer

Director
Ravinia Steans Music Institute

When she was still a toddler, Alejandra Valarino Boyer’s family moved to the U.S. from Puerto Rico with just $300 to its name. So any enrichment for the young Boyer would have to be free or at least inexpensive. She joined a community choir, sang throughout grade school, and went on to pursue two performance degrees,
both on significant scholarships.

Now, as director of the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute (RSMI), Boyer pays forward the same transformative educational opportunities she enjoyed as a young singer and arts administrator.

Last summer, she also hosted a Sphinx LEAD retreat at Ravinia, providing a nurturing and inspiring environment for future leaders.

“I feel like my desire is to make sure that people have what they need to fulfill their dream,” Boyer says. “If I’m in a space that can help somebody further develop or showcase their skills and talent, I want to figure out the best way to do that—which is very much true of what goes on here at the Steans Institute.”

Boyer entered arts administration for the first time at Lyric Opera of Chicago, as an administrative assistant for the women’s board. She would stay at Lyric for nearly eight years, rising to become its director of community programs.

While working an equivalent role at Seattle Opera, the pandemic struck, and with it the global racial reckoning. Boyer had by then long tired of hearing “buts” from companies and creatives who hadn’t hired a diverse staff. “I really do want to hire a lighting designer of color; I just can’t find any really good ones.” Her response was to found BIPOCArts (Black, Indigenous, and POC Arts), an online resource connecting opera professionals of color to recruiters.

“That’s really where it came from: I was tired of writing the same email, ‘here are all the people you should look at,’” she says. “If I can help in some way to get you that answer faster, then let me help
you out.”