I am answering the call of my co-author Bill regarding Gergiev’s concert. After the US team botched both 100 meter relays in Beijing, holding on to that baton is as important as running fast, so I’m going to tread carefully and with some help….
Class 1 of Audience Connections is in the books! Because of labor day the next class is not until next Wednesday. It’s recorded ready to edit and podcast (still working that part out), and I told each student that they need to bring something they read about arts issues over the next six days for us to talk about in class.
Since Bill wrote his post challenging us to weigh in, I am going to set aside some time in the next class to discuss it. I sent them the link to his post and so even though it will be down the road a bit, there will be six voices (including mine) in response.
It’s interesting to me that we go from big event (Olympics) to big event (election), or tragedy to tragedy, thinking that there will be major changes to our way of life and/or how we all get along because of the spectacle of an event or a response to a tragedy. To call the Beijing Olympics the best ever may be true because of the athletic and even architectural achievements, but the talk of nations unifying, coming together in peace etc…Did it stop any fighting in Georgia? I’m not saying that I wasn’t captivated by the Olympics, but do we have to wait for two weeks every 2 years (if we count the winter games) to talk about unity and peace? And then it doesn’t really happen anyway! Like when the NY Phil went to North Korea. I didn’t really write about it because to be honest, it may have been an historic trip, exciting and fascinating, but there will have to so many more cultural and diplomatic exchanges before anything really happens politically.
It’s a chicken and egg thing for me, I think of landmark events having the most impact when they are celebrating a breakthrough such as Bernstein’s Berlin Wall concert. I mean if it was 10 years earlier does anyone think if they had played Beethoven 9, the Wall would have fallen because of it?
I think major changes are a collective breakthrough, the will of the masses for change and the arts fit into the the entire process as an important element to help people, same with athletics, politics etc… The point is I believe all those things need to come together all the time, and not just once every few years in big grandiose settings with fingers crossed that it will work!