Arts Engines

"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.

“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.

“One way to get to know folks in an institution like Ravinia or an orchestra, opera company, dance company or theatre is to not use the words “mission statement” because everyone goes to sleep when you say it… but to talk about… Who are we? Is who we are everything we want to be or could be? And, if not… how do we get there?” Welz Kauffman, Ravinia Festival President and CEO shares the process of evolution within arts organizations.