Orchestrating Change by Canton Symphony Orchestra

Today's guest is Camille Delaney-McNeill, Director of the Judith and Thomas L. Beckman YOLA Center, serving the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles program in Inglewood, California. Prior to her arrival in Los Angeles in 2021, she was the Director of Programs for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids, a comprehensive music education program serving students in Baltimore City Schools. She currently sits on the board of El Sistema USA, and was trained as a flautist before pursuing arts management, holding performance degrees from the University of Maryland and Peabody Conservatory.

Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. Visit www.orchestratingchange.com/stay-informed to sign-up for email reminders, view past episodes, and see the various channels where you can view our content. For more information about everything else we are offering at this time, please visit www.cantonsymphony.org.

We are thrilled to be joined today in person by Chris Jenkins, Associate Dean for Academic Support, Liaison to the office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Visiting Professor of Musicology at Oberlin Conservatory. Concurrently with his work at Oberlin, he is also pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Viola Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music AND a Ph.D. in Musicology from Case Western Reserve University. All of this on top of degrees he already holds from Harvard University, New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, and Columbia University. He is the former Deputy Director of the Barenboim-Said Foundation in the West Bank, and was a third place winner in the senior division of the 2005 Sphinx Competition. On top of all of this, he published his first book last year, titled Assimilation v. Integration in Music Education.

Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a new website! Go to www.orchestratingchange.com to sign-up for email reminders, view past episodes, and see the various channels where you can view our content. For more information about everything else we are offering at this time, please visit www.cantonsymphony.org.

We welcome Mary Verdi-Fletcher, a professional wheelchair dancer and the founding Artistic Director of the Dancing Wheels Company, a physically integrated dance troupe that has operated in Northeast Ohio for over four decades. She also founded the Dancing Wheels School, which has since become the world’s epicenter for professional training in physically integrated dance. She and her company performed with the Canton Symphony Orchestra in 2015, where they were part of the world premiere of Stephen Melillo’s Symphony No. 4 “Lightfall” and also danced to the Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. She has been a tireless advocate for equal rights for disabled people, including lobbying for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a new website! Go to www.orchestratingchange.com to sign-up for email reminders, view past episodes, and see the various channels where you can view our content. For more information about everything else we are offering at this time, please visit www.cantonsymphony.org.

We welcome soprano Amanda Powell, a multi-faceted artist equally at home under the lights on the orchestral concert stage and in the intimate clubs of the jazz and folk scenes. She has performed with the Cleveland-based, Grammy award winning ensemble Apollo’s Fire, and has been featured as a soloist on a number of staples of the baroque repertoire. Additionally, she is the lead singer of the group Alla Boara, which performs modern jazz arrangements of traditional Italian folk songs. Amanda also teaches voice at Cleveland State University and serves as Community Arts Liason for the Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights. We are thrilled to welcome Amanda to the Canton Symphony Orchestra twice this season - as our soprano soloist for Mozart’s Requiem, and with Alla Boara as part of our Divergent Sounds Series. We are delighted to welcome her here, to our podcast!

Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a new website! Go to www.orchestratingchange.com to sign-up for email reminders, view past episodes, and see the various channels where you can view our content. For more information about everything else we are offering at this time, please visit www.cantonsymphony.org.

Our guest today is Hip-hop artist Jéan Pierre Johnson. Known artistically as Jéan P The MC, he shares a body of music that reflects his environment, touching on topics such as fatherhood, childhood experiences, spirituality, relationships, and his outlook on Hip-Hop, locally and nationally. Once Jéan settled in Athens, Ohio, he began to record a slew of mixtapes and perform locally, even sharing the stage with major artists such as KRS-One, Curren$y, Stalley, Dom Kennedy & Ace Hood. The 33-year-old MC was also featured on MTV’s “Get In The Game” with Sway, Juelz Santana & Trinidad James. It wasn’t long before Jéan P The MC became a familiar name in Ohio’s rap scene.

Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a new website! Go to www.orchestratingchange.com to sign-up for email reminders, view past episodes, and see the various channels where you can view our content. For more information about everything else we are offering at this time, please visit www.cantonsymphony.org.

Our guest today is GRAMMY Award-winning horn player and composer Jeff Scott. He rose to prominence as the founding horn player and twenty-plus-year member of the Imani Winds, a nationally renowned woodwind quintet made up of musicians of color. His horn career has also taken him to the pit of The Lion King on Broadway and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, as well on tour alongside such luminaries as Barbara Streisand. Jeff is also a prolific composer, whose new piece "Song of the Uirapuru" was premiered by the Canton Symphony Orchestra with violin soloist Seohyun Kim. A native of New York City and a graduate of Manhattan School of Music and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he now lives here in Northeast Ohio, where he is a professor at Oberlin College. Jeff Scott, welcome to Orchestrating Change!

Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a new website! Go to www.orchestratingchange.com to sign-up for email reminders, view past episodes, and see the various channels where you can view our content. For more information about everything else we are offering at this time, please visit www.cantonsymphony.org.

We are joined today by Mario Lopez, Executive Director of the Billings Symphony in Montana. Prior to his appointment, he served in Education and Community Engagement roles with both the Knoxville Symphony and the Sarasota Orchestra. Originally a French horn player, he studied at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, then worked in the for-profit corporate world before returning to Classical music on the administrative side. 

Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a new website! Go to www.orchestratingchange.com to sign-up for email reminders, view past episodes, and see the various channels where you can view our content. For more information about everything else we are offering at this time, please visit www.cantonsymphony.org.

This episode features Leni Boorstin, who spent over forty years working for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, most recently as Director of Government and Community Affairs. Her tenure included community engagement work surrounding the opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the arrival of music director Gustavo Dudamel, as well as developing the expansive Youth Orchestra LA program from the ground up, a program that now serves over 1,000 young musicians each year. She also served as the Human Relations Commissioner for the city of Los Angeles under four different mayors, and founded Arts for LA, a non-profit which advocates for equitable access to the arts across all communities.

Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a new website! Go to www.orchestratingchange.com to sign-up for email reminders, view past episodes, and see the various channels where you can view our content. For more information about everything else we are offering at this time, please visit www.cantonsymphony.org.

Today we are joined by coloratura soprano Louise Toppin. She has performed all over the world at venues such as Carnegie Hall and with orchestras in such diverse places as Sweden, Uruguay, and Japan. She has conquered some of opera’s most beloved and challenging roles, including the famous Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, while also championing works by minority composers such as Scott Joplin and William Grant Still. Her career has brought her to Northeast Ohio several times, including a 1998 appearance here at the Canton Symphony Orchestra and this past November up the road with her hometown Akron Symphony. In addition to her performing career, Dr. Toppin is a Professor of Voice at the University of Michigan, and previously served as Chair of the Department of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a new website! Go to www.orchestratingchange.com to sign-up for email reminders, view past episodes, and see the various channels where you can view our content. For more information about everything else we are offering at this time, please visit www.cantonsymphony.org.

Today we are joined by Blake-Anthony Johnson, CEO of the Chicago Sinfonietta. He became the first African American to hold such a position with a nationally renowned orchestra when he began his tenure in 2020. He also serves on a number of boards and committees, including the Sir Georg Solti Foundation, the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, and the EDI Orchestral Management Committee at the League of American Orchestras. He first became interested in orchestral management while a student at Vanderbilt University, from which he earned a Bachelor of Music in cello performance. He then completed his Masters degree right up the road at Cleveland State University, during which time he performed with the Canton Symphony! He went on to perform as a member of the New World Symphony, and also appeared with the Cincinnati and Nashville Symphonies before turning his focus to management. Blake-Anthony Johnson, thank you so much for joining us today.

Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a new website! Go to www.orchestratingchange.com to sign-up for email reminders, view past episodes, and see the various channels where you can view our content. For more information about everything else we are offering at this time, please visit www.cantonsymphony.org.