I’ve now posted the Rotary speech I gave yesterday in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. It was an attempt to distill and discuss (in 20 minutes) the challenge of valuing culture in communities to an audience that hadn’t been part of the academic or advocacy conversation.
Avid readers will recognize the opening joke, which I also used in a keynote address in Toronto earlier this year. I figured the Sheboygan Rotary wouldn’t have read that speech. Plus, it’s such a wonderful and useful joke to launch the conversation.
Give it a read, and add a comment if you like.
Interesting: I remember when the Xerox Corporation had a pianist program through the now defunct Affiliate Artists. Wouldn’t it be great if a corporation were to set up sponsorship for this program again in the 21st century?
Pianists were sent to cities where they would perform in schools, corporations, prisons, shopping centers etc, play a recital, give master classes, and then after the whole community knew your name, came the big concert with the orchestra! It was truly an event–as the pianist, we knew so many audience members by the time the concert rolled around. It brought the community together, the artist closer to the community, and the nice part: it was all funded in large part by Xerox.
I did my one-to-two week residencies with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, Elgin Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, New Mexico Symphony. Any thoughts out there?