Mohammed Fairouz, born in 1985, is one of the most frequently performed, commissioned, and recorded composers working today. By his early teens, the Arab-American composer had journeyed across five continents, immersing himself in new sounds and experiences. His catalog encompasses virtually every genre, including opera, symphonies, vocal and choral settings, chamber and solo works. His voice as a composer is personal, filled with imagination and surprises.
Joshua Roman speaks with Eugenia Zukerman and Emily Ondracek-Peterson of Noted Endeavors about the importance of artists being well-rounded people. “A cellist of extraordinary technical and musical gifts” (San Francisco Chronicle), Joshua has exhibited a wonderfully multifaceted career – cellist, composer, artistic director, entrepreneur, TED Fellow. He believes that musicians should follow in the footsteps of great artists such as Casals and Yo-Yo Ma, basing one’s art on well-rounded understanding of the world.
As Founder and Artistic Director of the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival, Linda Chesis is always on the lookout for artists to book for the festival. She talks with Eugenia Zukerman and Emily Ondracek-Peterson of Noted Endeavors about what she looks for when deciding which musicians to book, while also suggesting what musicians can do to make themselves more appealing for booking.
Cellist Wendy Law, founder and artistic director of Classical Jam, talks with Noted Endeavors about involving entire communities.
Arts advocacy isn’t just about speaking before Congress or requesting support from donors. It is also about artists cultivating their audiences by communicating on levels that transcend the page and the stage. Classical Jam aims to build relationships with audiences outside the concert hall through collaborations with fellow artists, presenters and people living in the community. Wendy Law knows the importance of connecting on a personal level with members of a city or town, engaging with them, having them participate in making music.
As President and CEO of Washington Performing Arts, Jenny Bilfield has seen the organization thrive as one of the nation’s preeminent multi-disciplinary arts presenters, especially notable for launching and nurturing innumerable performing artists, and sustaining high-impact arts education partnerships with the DC public schools and diplomatic community. Bilfield has significantly broadened Washington Performing Arts’ profile and organizational capacity through new programmatic collaborations and alliances, an institutional re-branding, by launching the Mars Urban Arts Initiative (funded by Mars Inc. and Jacqueline Badger Mars) to fuel connections between mainstage and amateur DC artists, and in conceiving and producing the landmark, multi-partner concert, Of Thee We Sing, at Constitution Hall celebrating the 75th anniversary of Marian Anderson’s historic performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
As President and CEO of WPA (and in her previous stint as as Artistic and Executive Director of Stanford Live), Bilfield has seen her share of “meet and greets” and the successful outcomes that can arise from relationships that develop from these sometimes stressful and exhausting post-concert fetes. Bilfield suggests that artists ask questions and learn about those in attendance as a way of developing relationships that might prove beneficial for both parties.
