Dewey21C has its first birthday: A Take on Arts Education from two Symphonic Giants

Tomorrow will be the first anniversary of Dewey21c, and I will celebrate by eating some croissants (there's a killer place for croissants and macroons around the corner), I thought I would end my first year of Dewey21c, which would be something like the 144th published entry, with a story about arts education through the lens of Pierre Boulez and Christoph von Dohnanyi.

144 entries; 365 days. All arts education.

In the late mid 90's, I was working on an arts education plan for The Cleveland Orchestra. Then and still Director of Education, Joan Katz Napoli, and I went to meet with the orchestra's music director, Dohnanyi, and the orchestra's guest conductor, Boulez, in order to bring them into the conversations that were taking place across the orchestra's community to help design this plan. We met with each separately.

I had worked with a number of orchestras in developing similar plans, and while we were given significant access to board, staff, musicians, and people throughout the communities, we rarely met with the music directors, which I always thought was quite odd. In Baltimore, for example, we met with virtually everyone but David Zinman, the then music director. Naturally, I always thought this was an unfortunate loss and a commentary on the orchestra industry culture.

So, Cleveland really went that extra mile and not only arranged time with its music director, but with perhaps the most famous living conductor in the world (not to mention his role as a composer and musical citizen): Pierre Boulez.

These two sides of the same coin speak volumes about arts education then and today, as well as, naturally, the culture of orchestras and classical music.

Long story short: after all the lovely pleasantries with Dohnayni, this was a quick meal at his home, we made our pitch about deepening the orchestra's relationship with public schools in the Cleveland area. Dohnanyi was quick to reply. Essentially he said (yes, I am paraphrasing, from 12 year old notes!):

"Why would we do this? I don't see how we could have a fruitful relationship with students who were not deeply involved and advanced in the study of classical music. There would be no common language. I could understand working with advanced high school students or conservatory students."

And, that was that, as they say.

Next up, a brief meeting with Boulez. Again, we make our pitch, wanting to seek his advice, learn from his experiences, yadda, yadda. Oddly enough, when I was in All-City High School Orchestra in the New York City public schools, Pierre Boulez conducted us in a side-by-side with the New York Philharmonic, and separately.

So, Boulez gave it a moment's thought, and out he came with a flash of arts education brilliance:

Essentially he said:

"In thinking about orchestras working with young people, you have to consider that symphonic music is based on memory and respect. Children don't care about such things, they are about spontaneity and creativity. In order to develop something worthwhile, you would have to bridge the gap between memory and respect, and spontaneity and creativity."

And that was that.

So, 140 posts later, that will be that for my first year.