On Sunday, I'm participating in University of Hartford's President's College Showcase 2010. Dean Aaron Flagg of the Hartt School is convening a panel to focus on the future of orchestras. (We start at 11:30am) He asked each of us to submit a written response to this question for publication in the program.

The orchestra field includes school, community, youth, collegiate, semi-professional, and fully professional orchestras. Describe your ideal future for the American Orchestra. What part of it do you think will actually take place? Why?

I was asked to further comment on these questions related to youth symphonies and university orchestras.

What is different about the young performers in youth orchestras today than 20 years ago? What experiences might higher education be surprised to realize youth orchestra members have and therefore want from a collegiate experience? How might colleges and the professional world adjust to maintain their long-term interest? Having advocated for funding at the county and state-level, what are some of the perceptions of the orchestra field in the public sector and how might or how are they impacting the future?

Here's what I wrote. If you're there please come say Hello!

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Orchestra music is inherently a community created art form, yet it is dependent upon the excellence and dedication of each individual participant. Understanding and working with this duality is essential to successfully advancing orchestral music into the future. Inspiring individual musicians to commit themselves to enthusiastically pursuing the goals of the ensemble consistently results in the most successful orchestral experiences for musicians and audiences. Sustaining this enthusiasm in musicians over a lifetime, particularly professional musicians, is a challenge.

Enthusiasm is not hard to find in student musicians. And, we have clues as to how their youthful enthusiasm may be extended beyond their current experiences. The majority of students participating in youth orchestras today don't have the same school orchestra experiences their counterparts had twenty years ago. Unlike in the past, most are receiving their musical instruction through private teachers and spending much more time focused on individual repertoire. As a result, orchestral and chamber music repertoire is novel to them, as is the group experience of an ensemble. This is particularly true of string players whose parents started them in lessons at an early age without giving them an ensemble experience in their musically formative years.

Universities have the opportunity to tap this limited exposure to ensemble. It can actually be the source of ongoing excitement and growth in students. Framing the university music experience as a venture where each student is charged with growing their musical skills in order to prepare for playing repertoire alongside their peers and colleagues would communicate the value of the orchestra as a community project. Instead of viewing their progress as an individual concern, students would understand they are first and foremost contributing to something larger than themselves. We might even see the end of the senior recital.

In addition to focusing on the students' own discovery and embrace of orchestral repertoire, universities have the opportunity to teach them how to share their passion for the repertoire with their wider community. There is little doubt students will continue to come out of college with the musical skills to perform amazing orchestral repertoire. But will universities commit to giving them the skills they need to share their love of the music with friends, family, neighbors, and strangers?

Twenty years from now our nation's college, community, and professional orchestras will have to relate to their communities dynamically to be valued widely. Giving today's student musicians the skills to lead that dynamism will be good for them, good for orchestras, and good for our nation.

• Increasing public funding for nonprofit arts organizations in order to better serve their communities
• Ensuring that every child has the opportunity for a comprehensive, high quality arts education in grades K-12
• Nurturing an environment that allows individuals and families affordable access to all forms of the arts

We have candidates for City Council, School Board, County Supervisor, and State Assembly all expected to attend. With 100 of San Diego's arts and culture leaders along with the board members from California Arts Advoctes surrounding these candidates at the mixer, we think this will be the first step to building relationships with the eventual winners of these races.

If you haven't started planning an election event focused on the arts in your community I encourage you to get started. The election is less than three months away. It really only takes a commited group of people to use their networks to distribute invitations, follow up with campaigns and secure a cultural location. Americans for the Arts Action Fund even has tips and tools to help you.

There is no more fun way to build relationships with candidates than by throwing a party to impress them with the crowd you draw, the calibre of leader in attendance, and the power of the arts as a backdrop. Post info about your party in the comments below!

Update: The staff at the Listening Post has just confirmed that their research shows the non-profit sector is the 4th largest employer in the United States.

San Diego's mayors have not always trumpeted the arts. In fact, Mayor Sanders claimed he didn't know much about the arts when he ran for office in 2005. Through a steady effort to engage him on the part of arts and culture organizations and supporters as well as positive media attention during the intervening years, we have a mayor that proudly uses his position to speak of the arts as one of San Diego's strengths.

All arts advocacy has the potential to achieve strong relationships with policy makers. As opposed to focusing solely on funding or specific issues, in San Deigo we focus our advocacy on a shared belief in the strength and potential for our city. In the arts community we highlight how our work is contributing to that strength and future vitality on a regular basis. The press conference is one of those times when we're delighted to have our Mayor amplifying the message. 

Unfortunately, I can't embed the video so use this link to watch the latest 10 minutes of arts and culture fame at San Diego City Hall.

What amazes me is that each El Sistema musician learns not only how to play, but gains experience teaching others, helps to run the ensemble, and learns to connect his or her efforts to the community.

"[El Sistema] boils down to a very holistic approach to the child and her community. The intention behind the music is to shape strong citizens and healthy neighborhoods, and this intention informs everything. The orchestra becomes an ideal community and the child is both an individual asset and also a member of the collective orchestra. Every instrument is needed to play the symphony, but no single instrument can play it alone. This means that even the 'competition' is healthy-and, in fact, it is quite different than competition in the US."

Here's a sample

As a non-STEM trained executive in technology companies for many years, I had firsthand exposure to how they operated and what level of success, if any, they each achieved. The difference that created notable success versus just surviving was an innovative mindset and leadership by well-rounded executives who were comfortable with innovation and tolerant and supportive of innovators.

So, how do we address this looming "innovation gap" and is what we are doing with STEM sufficient?

This question and part of the answer leads to STEAM - going a step beyond STEM by assuring the arts are an integral and necessary part of educating our future innovators so they can compete successfully in the forthcoming world economy.

This convening is not so much about finding new language to better describe or market what we do in the arts; this is about launching an unprecedented inquiry into what is needed for the arts to become an indispensable part of life to the diverse people and communities of California.

I think the arts and artists are one of our most effective tools in reaching beyond and through repressive regimes in giving hope to people.

UPDATE: Here is a photo of Molly, Bill, and me 

After interviewing close to 28,000 people in 26 communities over two years, the study has found that three main qualities bind people to place: social offerings such as entertainment venues and places to meet - the top factor in 21 of 26 communities, openness (how welcoming a place is) and the area's aesthetics (its physical beauty and green spaces).

Access to quality education - whether at the elementary, secondary or college level - was also an important factor.

and

The study also looked at the relationship between how passionate and loyal people are to their communities and local economic growth. Researchers did find a significant relationship between the two. For example, from 2002-06, the most attached communities had the highest local GDP growth.