impresario

American  

[im-pruh-sahr-ee-oh, -sair-] / ˌɪm prəˈsɑr iˌoʊ, -ˈsɛər- /

noun

• impresarios
  plural

1. a person who organizes or manages public entertainments, especially operas, ballets, or concerts.

2. any manager, director, or the like.

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impresario British  

/ ˌɪmprəˈsɑːrɪˌəʊ /

noun

1. a producer or sponsor of public entertainments, esp musical or theatrical ones

2. the director or manager of an opera, ballet, or other performing company

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impresario Cultural  

1. A sponsor or producer of entertainment, especially someone who works with opera or ballet companies or performers of classical music.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• impresarios
  plural

Etymology

Origin of impresario

1740–50; < Italian, equivalent to impres ( a ) impresa + -ario -ary

Explanation

An impresario is a promoter: someone who books, promotes, and organizes shows such as concerts. Impresario comes from an Italian word for a businessperson, and in English it especially refers to someone in the promotion business. In the music business, Bill Graham was a famous impresario who arranged concerts for huge bands such as The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd. An impresario signs a band — or other entertainment — and makes a deal with the venue. Impresarios then arrange advertising and promotion to alert fans and arrange for tickets to be sold. Impresarios make shows happen.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

impresario impresarios

Trump stood behind the spread as host and Quarter Pounder impresario.

From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026

By age 25 Belafonte was touring nationally, and one listener, the film impresario Otto Preminger, cast him as the male lead in his 1954 movie, “Carmen Jones.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Scenes flesh out a lineup of predatory city characters, from an obsessive building superintendent to a scheming nightclub impresario.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

And it’s Cooper Hoffman, in a performance as flustered as his impresario in “Licorice Pizza” was confident, who commands the movie, topping from the bottom.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026

“I have taken the liberty of informing the impresario that you acquired your astounding musical facility in one night through conversation with the Devil at a crossroads.”

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson

But offshore internet betting, and the exception enjoyed by fantasy leagues, eroded the principles of sports impresarios.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

The role presented a puzzle for Jackman, despite having played career impresarios like pop idol Peter Allen and P.T.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2025

Streisand was booked to play shows all around Greenwich, attracting celebrities, record labels and theatrical impresarios.

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2023

It wasn't really until the 1880s and 1890s, when entertainment impresarios like Barnum made efforts to "clean up" the circus to draw in a larger audience, that clowns truly became associated with children.

From Salon ● Nov. 12, 2022

Had half of them been kept the fact would have amazed a public whom long experience had taught to put no more faith in the promises of impresarios than in those of princes.

From Chapters of Opera Being historical and critical observations and records concerning the lyric drama in New York from its earliest days down to the present time by Henry Edward Krehbiel