He’s traveled the globe working in international banking, run Opera Boston for more than a decade and even coordinated a show in Boston that closed with The Dresden Dolls’ Amanda Palmer.

“Madam White Snake,” which premiered at Opera Boston last year under his tenure, just won composer Zhou Long a Pulitzer Prize.

Now, William Chapman — the new executive director of Monadnock Music — is leaving his Boston highrise apartment behind and making Harrisville his permanent home.

Under Chapman, Opera Boston — formerly the Boston Academy of Music — saw not only growth in its audience base from 167 subscribers to more than 1,500, but also in its budget, which went from under $800,000 to $2.8 million in a decade’s time. Chapman discussed what led to the organization’s dramatic success, as well as his vision for Monadnock Music, in an interview Thursday.

Starting out his career as an academic, Chapman then made the leap to business finance and finally to his passion, music and the arts. Since 1999, he’s worked in nonprofit arts administration. Between 2000 and January of 2011, he served as operations manager at Opera Boston.

When he first began retreating from Boston to the Monadnock region in 1998, Chapman said, he didn’t realize all that the area had to offer. Soon, he discovered Monadnock Music and other area arts organizations.

“Very quickly, I found this was where my heart was,” he said. “I’ve been talking about moving up here for years.”

Last year, someone asked him when he would finally make the move. “I said, ‘I’m waiting for a sign,’ then the sign came.”

Late last month, Monadnock Music announced Chapman’s appointment, effective June 1, along with Francestown resident Mike Petrovick’s new role as the nonprofit’s board president.

When asked about Opera Boston’s ascendancy over the last 10 years, Chapman said it was a team effort.

“I’m a very methodical and thorough person. If you get the right plan in place and you just work at it long enough and you get the right people on the team, you make a little progress ... and eventually it adds up,” Chapman explained.

Having a vision isn’t enough, though, he said. Someone has to execute it.

“That’s the difference between an activity and an institution,” he said.

Understanding audiences is also important, according to Chapman, who has spent years studying and listening to them. He’s also analyzed how the economic recession affects audiences, noting that selectivity can be contagious.

“One of the worst mistakes an arts organization can make is to retreat to defensive programming,” he said. “Certain audiences want to be taken on the voyage of remembrance and certain audiences want to be taken on the voyage of discovery, and when you get that wrong, it’s really uncomfortable. It’s like the gears are grinding.”

Too much emphasis on the journey of remembrance can be restrictive, he noted, adding that there should be a balance between what is familiar and what is exciting and new. A journey of discovery changes a person, he said, in ways that remembrance can’t.

When Chapman first began attending Monadnock Music concerts, he said, the range of programming and its ambition impressed him. He was surprised to find local premieres and explorations of work by such composers as György Sándor Ligeti.

“That’s not really what I expected in a small New England village,” he said.

Monadnock Music’s artistic excellence coupled with the classic New England setting is distinctive, he noted. “I just thought that was extraordinary.”

The concerts in village meetinghouses and churches bring the whole community together in an intimate way, Chapman said. “That’s when I fell in love with it.”

Chapman’s vision for the organization is twofold. As the second half of the economic downturn approaches, he said, Monadnock Music must build on its range and skill of programming so that the public has an experience that isn’t easy or possible to replicate anywhere else in New England.

Administratively, he said, as the organization nears its 50th anniversary, it must undertake some serious institution capacity building, which doesn’t necessarily mean getting bigger. The focus needs to be on Monadnock Music’s distinctiveness and quality of service.

One question, he said, is can Monadnock Music have a younger, more diverse audience? “If I didn’t think it could, I wouldn’t have taken this job.”

One’s life stage can often determine ability to participate in live arts, he said, adding that Monadnock Music offers a series of village concerts free of charge to the public, making classical music accessible to everyone. The Lend An Ear! program provides music education to local elementary school children, too.

Chapman learned from a focus group of Opera Boston audiences that people wanted more context for the music. “They wanted to be closer to the art form and they wanted to be more connected.”

Monadnock Music is also looking at other ways it can serve the community, collaborate with other arts organizations, Chapman said, “and embed ourselves more deeply in the region.”

Asked about federal and state budget cut concerns, Chapman said the state level cuts are not yet clear and individual stakeholders in the area are supportive.

“It’s a rich arts ecosystem here, especially given the population base,” he said. “I don’t think people come to the Monadnock region to be bored. They come to be stimulated and that’s not true in a lot of rural areas.”

Chapman is passionate about sharing the enjoyment of music with others and said he looks forward to making new friends for music and the arts through his work.

“And, also showing how music can be a friend to people who need them,” he said. “The job is to build trust and when you have that trust, people will follow you to a new place.”