“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.

“As long as you come at it from a perspective of humility and knowing that your first steps are not going to be your last steps, then I think that just going ahead and starting with whatever is in your mind, “Okay, I can do this, I can do this,” let’s start there and see where it leads.” Saxophonist and educator Steven Banks speaks to how orchestras can further diversity in their organizations.

“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.