Arts Engines

“Art for life’s sake… which is about welcoming and understanding and creating that cultural artistic ecosystem of people in your community, and whether community is in your local region or around your country, it’s a different kind of conversation you are going to have.” Deborah Rutter, President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts speaks to the role of arts in the nation.

“Challenge them to think like leaders, to think like entrepreneurs. And I think that will bring us to a place where we have a whole new society and a whole new way of presenting the arts.” Thomas Douglas, Director of Opera Studies & Choral Activities at Carnegie Mellon University speaks to how to prepare the next generation of musical artists.

“Yes, Music is our life, but it is really a vehicle… a vehicle of communication between people. It really is about people.” Carlos Miguel Prieto, Music Director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra speaks to the role of music in society.

“We’ve taken the challenges brought on by COVID and actually turned them into opportunities. And so, what we present now is just a reflection of what we’ve always wanted to do and what we really care a lot about within our own communities.” C. Lorenzo Evans III, COO and Director of Finance for Washington Performing Arts, speaks to how arts organizations can respond in the pandemic environment.

“This is your community. What is it that you want to see… and why? And let’s organize ourselves and make it happen.” Lisa Richards Toney, President and CEO of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals, shares how arts organizations can engage with their constituencies.

“We’re finally have the conversation at a high enough level with important enough people that I think maybe something can change. And, I think companies and arts organizations are starting to see that need people who look like you and who look like me at the table.” Mark Williams, Chief Artistic Officer of the Cleveland Orchestra speaks to the importance of change in the orchestral world.

“Artists have missed that sense of connection to audience. Audiences have missed that in-person experience. We are all co-dependent. And so, I look forward to doing all we can to not resume where we left off but to even go beyond that point in terms of meaningful engagement.” Wayne Brown, President and CEO of the Michigan Opera Theatre discusses the core issues facing arts institutions today

“In my home office there are literally pictures of students on the wall next to me… at my desk at work at times when I was in person. I always keep pictures of students so that, as I am making decisions, designing a theory test or I’m deciding on a speaker to bring in… I am literally keeping students front and center.” Natalie Butler, Dean of Learning and Teaching at People’s Music School, speaks to the central role of students in her work as an arts education leader.

“I hope that what this time does for us is blows open these myopic views of success that we have sort of held on to, and help us all as artists to go deep into What is my unique contribution? What will I contribute? What will my voice look like?” Ashley Hall, Career Coaching Manager and Professor of Trumpet at the Longy School of Music speaks about preparing musicians for success in an evolving arts world.

“There was a moment where, through this pandemic, I got re-inspired to think again. It made me get off the treadmill of exactness and repetition and find a different path. It made me start thinking again. From this ugliness, from this brokenness, I am feeling a way to heal and heal stronger like any bone that comes back. So, I see this as an opportunity.” Francisco Núñez, Founder & Artistic Director of the Young People’s Chorus of New York, shares the impact from the pandemic on his leadership approach.

"I want to see action. I want to see change. I want to see investment. I want to see not that EDI (Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) is something you need to do, but that this is a value we have in our organizations." Michael Kaiser, Chairman of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management, shares the importance of diversity in the arts.

“It is our job to be responsible for the upkeep of our art form… to nourish it and to also push it forward.” Conductor and social entrepreneur Roderick Cox talks about the role of musicians.

“Music is the way that we interact with the world, it’s an interface. It gives us voice to how we experience the world. We all love, we all live, we all struggle.” Sought after bassist, Ian Saunders, speaks to the power of music.

“We gotta get out of this tower. We’ve got to engage with the communities of Southeast Michigan… the communities of shared heritage, the educational communities, the nonprofit community, the business community, and that means… get out of the tower.” Ken Fischer, President Emeritus of the University Musical Society, speaks to the importance of community engagement in arts organizations.

“None of the jazz standards are written by women. Most of the band leaders aren’t. So, you have patrons, presenters, radio journalists… all people that are coming now more to a consciousness around this issue and I see it changing so I’m extremely hopeful but in ten years I would really like to not have to have an institute like this.” Founder and Artistic Director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, Terri Lyne Carrington, speaks to the role of women in jazz.

“Becoming a composer is about sharing your music. Whatever you create has to then become observed by someone else or performed by someone else in my case. So, it was really about having the bravery to get over that one crucial step of… I have created this thing and now I’m gonna share it with somebody.” Composer Jessie Montgomery shares her thoughts on the first steps in the creative process.

“In every culture… the human voice, it’s as basic as breathing. That connection to me, its one of the foremost foundational forms of communicating. And so, that is to me why choral music… or singing is so powerful.” Dr. Eugene Rogers, Founding Director of EXIGENCE, Artistic Director of Washington Chorus and Director of Choirs & Associate Professor of Conducting at Univ. of MI shares his passion for the vocal arts.

“At the end of the day, I don’t produce any sound when I conduct. They are the ones who create that special magic. And for that limited amount of time, we have that possibility… collectively, to reach a certain level that’s probably not possible for each one of us individually… that’s the magic of orchestras.” Dmitry Sitkovetsky, violinist, conductor and Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony speaks to the power of orchestral music.

“How is it that these people, brought involuntarily and denied their humanity, have created and invented the culture that has rocked the world for hundreds of years? Black music, Black dance, in different variations inventing the form of the slave narrative. What Black poetry has done over the course, especially of the last century… I think that there is a relationship between being denied humanity and voice with finding voice and self-expression.” Elizabeth Alexander, President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, shares her thoughts on the intersection of social justice and the arts.

“One way to get to know folks in an institution like Ravinia or an orchestra, opera company, dance company or theatre is to not use the words “mission statement” because everyone goes to sleep when you say it… but to talk about… Who are we? Is who we are everything we want to be or could be? And, if not… how do we get there?” Welz Kauffman, Ravinia Festival President and CEO shares the process of evolution within arts organizations.

“Confusion and ambiguity are not your friends. You must know what it is you want to do. After you have articulated what that is, you have to make some sort of tangible, tactical plan to get you where you want to go.” Margaret Lioi, CEO of Chamber Music America shares how to develop as a musician in today’s world.

“Music is a universal language and it has the capacity to pull at your heart in a funny way and if you need something, some inspiration to draw on, I think you can find a piece of music for any need.” Hear Victoria Robey, Chairman of the London Philharmonic Orchestra speak to the power of music in a changing world.

“If we don’t take seriously that people live in a symbolic world… and expression and narrative and story and song, poetry… that all of that is essential to how we navigate and understand? Then we’re always only going to have half the solution.” Steven Tepper, dean of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University shares wisdom on the role of arts.

“So when you’re feeling all that pressure and stress, I think being able to ground yourself in the “why you do this work” and, if you really believe the arts are needed for a healthy society, you pick yourself up and you keep on going.” Amy Fitterer, Executive Director of Dance/USA shares thoughts on arts leadership.

“The fact of the matter is, that for as long as there have been homo sapiens, there has been art. Whether it was people putting their hands on the face of a cave 40,000 years ago… it is an inescapable need… and, in that sense, I would never be apologetic about the arts.” Marshall Marcus, CEO of the European Youth Orchestra speaks to the importance of the arts.

“I discovered that there was such a thing as arts administration and that was it. I didn’t want to be the person on stage… ever. I wanted to be the one who got people there so… arts administration was for me!” Teresa Eyring, Executive Director of Theatre Communciations Group speaks about her passion for leading in the arts.

"The arts can help lift any human being above the vicissitudes, fears, and disappointments of the day." Hear more fascinating perspectives on creativity from Dr. Ronald Crutcher, cellist and President, University of Richmond.

"Seeing regular ordinary people doing extraordinary things for others who are out there protecting us and for me, that is where I get my inspiration." Don't miss Mary Anne Carter, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts share her thoughts related to creativity on the inaugural Arts Engines show!

“We are in an informal age and we are playing formal music and we have to find the bridge from one to the next. We are also in an ever more racially diverse community and country and we must go across that bridge as well.” Howard Herring, President & CEO of the New World Symphony speaks to building a future for the arts.

“We have the artistic imperative and we have the social imperative… and where do we find the intersection of those two needs? And that was fascinating to try to find our way through that… and there aren’t easy answers.” Deborah Borda, CEO of the NY Philharmonic shares her leadership experiences.

"I think in this moment, my job is to convene, listen, activate, imagine, propose, procure, provoke, push... all the things that a really qualified virtuoso arts administrator would do." Composer and educator Daniel Bernard Roumain talks with Aaron about being a change agent in the arts sector.

"We're not really anymore a concert hall that presents just wonderful concerts that are extraordinary events, but we are trying to tell stories and stimulate people to take journeys..." Clive Gillinson, Exec. & Artistic Dir. of Carnegie Hall shares about leading the nation's concert hall during unprecedented times.

"Art & culture is the aspect of our society that brings meaning to the people. They are what you are working for... what you are trying to survive for. They make us more human." Bob Lynch, Pres. of Americans for the Arts speaks to the importance of arts advocacy in a changing world.

"You can see this tremendous need for people to connect to their sense of creativity... their sense of how to find hope... and I think the arts are crucial to keeping us feeling that we do have hope... at times when we are really in need of that." Bennett Rink, Exec. Dir. of Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation speaks to the role of dance and the arts today.

“Let’s think about how we will express our collective joy and creativity three years from now, when we have the vaccine and medical treatments… we need to be prepared to tell the stories of that journey and opera is one of the most powerful ways to tell that story.” Marc Scorca, President and CEO of Opera America discusses the role of Opera in an evolving nation.

“Being an educated individual as part of today’s world… the arts play really an integral relationship…” Toni-Marie Montgomery shares her thoughts as dean of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University