Tessitura was born out of frustration by The Metropolitan Opera being unable to find suitable proven integrated applications to meet their business needs.

Arts organizations for decades have been primarily forced to mold their business practices around software developed for other purposes and markets or in a manner that attempts to link or interface ticketing software with fundraising software. Fully integrated software to handle core box office, development, marketing, reporting and customer service business applications for arts organizations in a user friendly and intuitive manner have been few and far between. The majority of the packages developed have been purchased by or are controlled by public companies or venture capital investors who are primarily interested in transaction charges and recurring revenue and have not fully focused on performing arts or operate within risky financial structures. Many products in the market are unproven, not fully integrated, or very dated.

Because a satisfactory integrated application could not be found, in 1996 the Metropolitan Opera's General Manager Joseph Volpe made an innovative decision and authorized a considerable investment to design, develop and implement Tessitura.