“My work as a conductor frequently affords me the opportunity to travel to communities large and small across the country,” writes Michael Butterman, music director of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, Boulder Philharmonic, and Pennsylvania Philharmonic, and education conductor at the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, in Tuesday’s (11/17) Shreveport Times (Louisiana). “Many of these concerts were designed to introduce young people to the magic of live symphonic music, and I am pleased to report that orchestras are doing abundant, high-quality work to support arts awareness and engagement. Even so, they face significant headwinds in fulfilling this aspect of their missions. Seemingly favorable geography and demographics do not necessarily correlate with support for arts education.” Positive examples include Red Lion and Boyertown, Pennsylvania, “among the top school districts in the country for their commitment to music education”; school districts surrounding Rochester, New York; and Shreveport, where the orchestra “supports its music education colleagues in myriad ways.” Butterman concludes, “Success in the 21st century innovation economy will depend more and more on a capacity for imagination and creativity…. Communities around the country, and the orchestras that serve them, would do well to recognize the strategic benefit of offering young people robust opportunities for artistic engagement and experimentation.”
Posted November 18, 2015
Pictured: The Shreveport Symphony Orchestra’s Musical Discovery Series, which serves schools in Caddo and Bossier Parishes.
