Executive Director Michael Albaugh and new Music Director Alyssa Wang chart an inspired future for one of the Cape’s most dynamic cultural institutions.

When Michael Albaugh first arrived on the Cape, he walked into the Symphony offices three days after the world shut down. It was March 16th of 2020, and as the new executive director of the Cape Symphony, he suddenly had an unexpected gift: time to look inward. “The pandemic gave us a moment to reflect on who we were,” he says. “We had the Conservatory on one arm and the Symphony on the other—two strong but separate entities. It was time to rebuild the foundation beneath them so we could move forward as one.”

That reflection became transformation. Today, under Albaugh’s leadership, the Cape Symphony has evolved into Cape Arts & Entertainment, a unified organization that encompasses the Cape Symphony Orchestra, the Conservatory, and the Cape Symphony Preschool and Conservatory—the only symphony-affiliated preschool in the country. Together, these programs have reshaped what a regional arts institution can be: nimble, inclusive, and deeply connected to the community it serves.

Albaugh’s résumé reads like a master class in cultural leadership. Before arriving on the Cape, he directed community initiatives for the Philadelphia Orchestra, ran the music program at Interlochen Center for the Arts, and developed programs for Wynton Marsalis at Jazz at Lincoln Center. But what sets him apart isn’t just his experience at the highest levels of the arts world—it’s the way he translates that experience into Cape Cod’s unique landscape.