The Persistence of Beauty
It may be the greatest challenge facing those who love classical music in our modern age is the one facing those who do not also love Beauty. Those…
Building Communities With Music
Editor’s Note: This essay was presented as the opening address at the Future Symphony Institute’s 2018 symposium in Seaside, Florida. So, why would a research institute focused on…
Beauty, Home, and the Concert Hall
Hot on the heels of what was surely disappointing news for Maris Jansons and Munich’s musical community—that, despite their protracted efforts, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra will not…
Our Hearts Are Restless… Until They Rest in Meta-Luxury
In the first part of this series, I acknowledged that there may be something wrong with the pursuit of luxury as exclusionary and materialistic, and that orchestras,…
Is Luxury a Bad Thing?
It shouldn’t surprise up that orchestras are distancing themselves from the idea of luxury. We generally, and perhaps rightly, sense that there is something wrong with it. The…
To Orchestrate A Renaissance
Sed me Parnasi deserta per ardua dulcis raptat amor.1 —Virgil Perhaps our modern world is not so far gone as yet, but it is easy for…
Saving Classical Music: A Return to Tradition
I founded the Future Symphony Institute as a think tank, modeled on the many think tanks that study complex issues in sciences and economics and that through…
Concerning Conservatories III: A Tale of Caution and Renewal
In the second part of this series, I introduced the theme of Creativity as perhaps the most persistent of the ideas inspiring the reformation of our institutions of higher…
Concerning Conservatories II: Social Activism and the Cry for Creativity
In the first part of this series, I acknowledged the growing consensus that there is something wrong with higher music education today, and I discussed Entrepreneurship as…
Concerning Conservatories I: The Appeal of Entrepreneurship
Since at least the 1920s, America has done a fine job of nurturing its budding classical musicians within a large and well-funded network of conservatories that function either…