>> From the Library of Congress in Washington DC. ^M00:00:03 ^M00:00:22 >> Annette McLean: Good evening, welcome to our Founders Day Weekend. I'm Anne McLean from the Library's Concert Office and we are very excited to be celebrating 90 years of legendary concerts here at the Library of Congress this season. Nine decades after the Library opened in October 1925, concerts from the Library of Congress is alive, vibrant and colorful. And it's exciting and exhilarating to be celebrating our history and looking forward to the future with a splendid lineup of more than 95 events. This weekend we're honoring the 150th anniversary of the founder of our concerts, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, an extraordinary woman, extraordinary philanthropist, and extraordinary role model. Today, October 30th, is her birthday, day that we mark each season with a special project. And I'm happy to say that two of her great granddaughters are here with us, Jose and Peg [inaudible], so welcome to them. ^M00:01:17 [ Applause ] ^M00:01:23 Mrs. Coolidge, as many of you know already, was a brilliant and formidable woman, pianist, composer, [inaudible] and a passionate advocate for chamber music. She endowed our superb concert hall and supervised it's construction. She established our concert series here through a concept that was visionary and radical for its time, a public/private partnership, a path breaking innovation signed into law by Calvin Coolidge. And if you have our brochure you can see a reprint image of that first bill. This was a first. Her gesture was a first. Her vision and her leadership which has made possible nearly 3000 concerts and more than 100 significant Coolidge Foundation commission for the Library was the spark for our panel tonight, A Leading Role: A Conversation on Women in the Music World. And I wanted to say, too, that you can see in a handsome exhibit about Mrs. Coolidge and her life and career over in the James Madison Building across the street. It's beautifully put together and curated by our two colleagues, Robin Rousch [assumed spelling] and Katelyn Miller. This weekend we have concerts that reflect Mrs. Coolidge's interests in music, both very new, tomorrow's concert -- or tonight's concert by a modern master and vocal magician, Meredith Monk. And also music that was very old. Tomorrow we have Pomerium, a vocal ensemble performing music of renaissance masters. So I'd like to introduce our distinguished panel tonight, and I'm very grateful to these speakers. We are honored to have as our featured speaker, Jane Chu, Chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts. It's [inaudible] to have you here. ^M00:03:07 [ Applause ] ^M00:03:11 Chairman Chu is the 11th chairman of the NEA appointed by President Obama in 2014. In addition to awarding nearly $220 million in grants during her tenure just to date, she's also launched a number of new programs, and including one called Creative Connections, we'll hear about -- Creativity Connects, pardon me, which we'll hear about later. She is a pianist and a former concert presenter, and this was of great interest to us when she was appointed. From 2006 to 2014 she was president and CEO of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri, overseeing a $413 million campaign to build that center. She holds a doctorate in Philanthropic Studies and a background in fundraising and development is an important part of her portfolio. We are very, very pleased to be able to work closely with the NEA and we will talk a little bit more about the intersection between public and private funding and developing those initiates. Cellist and educator, Astrid Schween, is admired internationally as both a solo and chamber artist, long-time member of the Lark Quartet, with whom she has performed here at the Library. She's now performing with the Boston Trio and she's a professor of Cello at the University of Massachusetts. In 2016 she will join the Julliard String Quartet, whom I know many of you are fans of, replacing cellist Joel Krosnick, and will join the faculty at the Juilliard School. Margaret Lioi -- ^M00:04:41 [ Applause ] ^M00:04:47 Margaret Lioi is CEO of Chamber Music America, founded 28 years ago to develop, support and strengthen the chamber music field, and I'm glad to say that the Library has been a member since the very early days of the founding of the organization. She too has a background very impressive in performance and business skills. She has an MBA in Arts Administration, and has held the post of Director or Development for the Spoleto Festival USA, and the Executive Director of the Eleanor Naylor Dana Charitable Trust. And I'd like to say that CMA is a very important commissioner of new music, offering a number of commissions, and we will talk about commissioning a little later. We would like to get started with hearing from these experts on many, many areas of the world of music and business as they intersect. And we would like to start off with Astrid Schween. >> Astrid Schween: Okay. Good evening. Hi, this is [inaudible]. Okay. So I put together a little narrative of what my life is like as a teacher, as a performer, as a mentor. I found this a wonderful exercise and a great way to kind of explore the impact I am and perhaps am not having on people around me, so I've prepared a little something. My perspective on women in the music world has been shaped by my activities as a performer, teacher and mentor. In these roles I've spent much of my time focusing on aspects that are largely technical, analytical, diagnostic and practical. As a teacher one of my primary responsibilities is to address the needs of each student, and help balance their strengths and weaknesses as developing cellists. Each student is different, and the work tends to focus on individual issues that are independent of race, gender or even age. My perspective has also been influenced by a very diverse family life that included a rich network of friends and family members from multiple cultures and backgrounds. My parents even chose my schools to reflect a similarly mixed population. There was also never any doubt at home that I would pursue a professional career. And it's nice to see a clip like that from [inaudible], I can understand that motivation. I later discovered that these values, which I took for granted, were not necessarily consistent with some of the conventions of the times, such as those I found during summer visits to my father's family in post war Germany, or even in some suburban communities closer to home, or the attitudes of some teachers that boys, as future breadwinners, would be more focused attention than girls. My most direct mentorship experience as a young cellist was with the great cellist, Jacqueline du Pre. Through a series of lucky events I was able to work with her and made numerous trips to London over the course of seven years, while still a student at Juilliard. My lessons with Jacqueline were unique. As someone who had lost the ability to play because of her illness, she learned to communicate the essentials by singing and making gestures with her arms. We listened to recordings and she would explain what she had been thinking interpretively and while on stage. These musically in-depth sessions always included at least one meal, several cups of tea, and lots of stories about her life as a touring artist. Normally you spend one hour with your teacher each week, or a little more with studio class time, but in this case I was invited into the thought process and creative process in a way that was completely new. Jacqueline took the time to share with me and explain from the point of view of a performer the nuts and bolts of assembling an interpretation and rending it practically through the instrument. To me this was the essence of mentorship. Women in the music world, with quotes, took on new meaning when I became of an all women string quartet. I started traveling extensively with the Lark Quartet for concerts, tours and competitions. This very valuable professional experience included both mentoring students of my own during quartet residencies at various institutions around the country, as well as being mentored by some of the great chamber music artists of the generation, who worked with us as we prepared for competitions. These included members of the Budapest, Amadeus, Bardeen, [inaudible] Juilliard and LaSalle quartets. With Jackie my lessons were all about how do you make this particular sound, how do you sustain this line, how do you play with more power, how do you conserve your energy, how does one imitate the human voice. With these quartet masters it tended to be more about illustrating to the audience the architecture and form of a complete work. From these people I learned a lot about collaboration, how to assemble a piece and convey it's substance to an audience, and how to rehearse. ^M00:10:03 It was also essential to my development as a coach of other chamber musicians. My time with the Lark Quartet also brought experience with commissioning composers and premiering and recording new works. The Lark was founded on the mission to expand the repertoire through funded commissions. During these years we worked a great deal with organizations like Chamber Music America, thank you, applying for both residency and commissioning grants. We worked with other organizations such as the Minnesota's Composers Forum, the National Orchestral Association, which was funded by the Judson Foundation, and the Mars and Alma Shapiro Fund, to name a few. Interestingly, all of these organizations featured women in leadership roles. And it was with each of them that we had direct communication when making our applications for funds. Over the years the Quartet commissioned numerous works from some of the most celebrated composers. These pieces were significant for our career building. Being the first ensemble to record them helped establish the Quartet in the mainstream of the American chamber music scene for many years. Some of the commissions included works for string quartet plus a guest artist, which opened the way for broader collaborations. These patrons, in ways not unlike Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge expanded the standard repertoire and helped advance the careers of some now very well known female composers. When Lark traveled internationally we were generally well received. Occasionally we would be found "charming and adorable" [laughter] or perhaps related to as though we were a group of girls enjoying some kind of hobby or field trip, with frequently the assumption that making a family would inevitably take our interests elsewhere. Over the course of the 20 plus years since I joined the group, and since my time with Jackie du Pre, these kinds of assumptions have diminished somewhat, and I now work with a group of students that is mostly female. More recently in my work at cello professor at UMass, Mount Holyoake and elsewhere, I've observed some of the different ways in leadership and mentoring can take shape. The students in the music department at UMass are by and large pre-professional musicians, focusing on cello performance and music [inaudible]. When working with these students I draw heavily on my most profound mentorships experiences as a student, such as my work with Jackie du Pre or Eugene Moye, cellist in New York, or my many others teachers and mentors. In fact, it's not uncommon in the middle of a lesson to feel as though I'm channeling the advice of one or another of my many teachers, when I'm helping a student with a problem. The how to is really in the foreground at UMass, and the pressure is on for immediate practical results that will prepare students for professional work. In addition to providing musical demonstrations, I have to provide them with a template for entering working life as a string player, whether that involves further study or starting orchestral auditions, or enrolling in competitions that not only can they play all the notes, but they have internalized the [inaudible] of the professional musician and are prepared to collaborate successfully. This includes the understanding that those who take a more entrepreneurial role are more likely to succeed. In contrast, the liberal arts agenda at Mount Holyoake College represents -- or presents me with cello students who are frequently majoring in other fields. My role there is to give them a deeper understanding and sense of confidence navigating a piece of music. As a women's college with a tradition of preparing women for leadership, the school values classroom experience that contributes to the basic goals of thinking independently and analytically, speaking and writing effectively, and connecting with the broader community. While preparing a piece of music one draws upon many of the analytical and communication skills required for effective leadership. In our lessons and coaching sessions, there are surprising numbers of parallels that can be drawn between musical performance and clear thinking and communication in general. In true Mount Holyoake style orchestra members rotate leadership positions, as board members, directors of marking and fundraising committees and more. They are thoroughly self-sustaining. Both of these institutions are actively engaged to advance women in leadership roles. For example, as recently as last year UMass developed a program known as Priming Women for Public Leadership, and Mount Holyoake as a vast array of programs, including Women Leading in Public Service Summit 2015. As I prepare to join the Juilliard faculty and my new colleagues in the Juilliard Quartet, I am learning more about the school and the many ways it has changed since I was a student there. To my delight, Juilliard has made a tremendous effort to offer a broad array of courses, to the point of creating whole departments geared toward career building, entrepreneurship, educational outreach, mentoring and innovation. Things have changed a lot since I was kid. Initiatives such as Julliard's Music Advancement program, the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Project STEP, and the Sphinx Organization in Detroit have brought a much more diverse generation of musicians into the world of music, and that world is showing signs of being more inclusive and more like the tapestry I grew up with. So it's very interesting to be here and hear what my two co panelists will have to say about the state of women in music, but is a very nice exploration. Thank you for inviting me. >> Annette McLean: Well, you know, it's very resonate to hear your comments, especially in this room with the [inaudible] instruments there that were played for so many years by the Budapest Quartet. And they were, as Robert [inaudible] used to say, the most famous quartet known by name in the world at that time. And our friend, June Schneider, is here who was married to Mischa Schneider, the cellist of the Budapest Quartet and June is a longtime -- she came to a concert first year in 1946, so she's here tonight. And for the Juilliard we presented them -- we have presented them for 67 of the 70 years they have been in business. So the Library is a place where stories and relationships and families are grown. And this -- Margaret, this applies to you very much. We -- as I say, we feel a part of a Chamber Music America. You have been very, very hands-on at CMA in developing a number of new program initiatives to encourage a diversity of expression, and we'd love to hear about that. >> Margaret Lioi: Well, I'll begin by saying that I never use GPS, I always use a map. [Applause] Now, I'm surprised to hear applause. I thought people would probably say, what does that have to do with women in the arts. Everything. And the reason is, I use a map because when I'm going on a trip I like to know not just where I'm starting from and where I'm going, but I like to know, oh, what does the interstate cross, and maybe there are mountains over here, or a lake or maybe I'll take a detour, so I like the bigger picture. And I realized that I do the same thing in my work. I don't just think of chamber music or even the performing arts, but I look at the bigger landscape. I look at what's happening at economically and socially and with technology and the political landscape. And I think that we all get a clearer picture of where we are in the larger world, where there might be opportunities, where there might be gaps that we can fill in. So thinking of this conversation in the larger context I thought I would start out where I often start out, which is the Census Bureau. I love reading Census Bureau statistics [laughter]. I know it sounds a little boring, but really you can find out so much about where you are and where you might want to go. So according to the Census Bureau women's presence in the labor force has increased dramatically, from about 30 million in 1970 to 73 million in 2010. Now to put that into context, in 1970 there were about 80 million workers total, so of those total workers, about 38% were women. And in 2010 there were 154 million workers, so the percentage of women had risen to about 47%. But the types of jobs that most women held in 1970 were dental assistants, teachers, secretaries and nurses. And in fact, I graduated from high school right around that time and I was one of three women out of -- we had a class -- I went to a women's high school, we had a class of about 200. I was one of three that was pursuing a career in the arts, all the other classmates were going to nursing school or becoming teachers. And that was actually confirmed at my last high school reunion, when we found that in fact most of the class had had careers in teaching and nursing. ^M00:20:24 The career guidance available at that time for women wanting to pursue a performing career didn't exist. I studied piano with the Eastman School of Music in the Preparatory Division, and my teacher wanted me to continue in the college division of Eastman, but I wanted to expand my world view. Now expand my worldview is a euphemism for I wanted to get out of Rochester, New York [laughter], even though Eastman is a wonderful school, but I just felt there had to be a place where the sun came out more than in Rochester, New York. Now I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. There were some well known women pianists at the time, but I didn't particularly want to be a performer, I just knew that I loved music, I loved the piano, and I wanted in some way to have a career in the performing arts. So the way I could see that at that time was to continue with the instrument that I had been studying. So we'll fast forward through four years of college and two years of graduate school, and after six years I had much improved as a musician and had as few prospects for employment as I had had six years before. And, again, there were few women professors of piano at New England Conservatory. They were not young women, and I really could not identify with them. My old teacher was a man, a wonderful man named Jacob Maxim, excellent teacher. I loved him. But he was not a mentor, he was very reclusive. As a matter of fact, he himself had stopped performing because he had such anxiety before he got onto the stage. And so I thought, I'm not sure that that's really the person I want for a mentor [laughter]. But we remained close, he just passed away recently, he was a wonderful man. But after I graduated I became a freelance musician, primarily for vocalists. And this actually turned into a career as an accompanist, which is now of course called collaborative piano. And I often say, if it had truly been collaborative when I was doing it I would have remained in that profession. ^M00:23:07 [ Laughter ] ^M00:23:10 I played with some wonderful musicians, I toured, I played for opera rehearsals and dance classes and music theater, you name it and I played for it. Freelancers live in fear of never getting another job, so you take any job at any time that comes your way, and that becomes its own problem which is another panel, which we'll schedule some time [laughter]. So this went on until I turned 30, and I had this really lightning bolt realization that I had no savings, no stability, I was working seven days a week, and I had lost a clear direction. My direction became maintenance. Did I have enough money for rent, food, and gas for my car. It was a very short-term plan, very short-term existence. So at that time I met a woman who was getting an MBA in Arts Administration. I had no idea that such a thing existed. There was actually a job called an Arts Administrator. And it does seem ridiculous to me now, but at that time I was so focused on playing that it never occurred to me that someone was actually in charge of the organizations that were hiring me. So let's -- we'll fast forward again for another couple of years. I did get my MBA and I began to work for arts organizations on the business side. So now that I'm running a national organization, I'd like to share a few things that I have observed in my career. They're not necessarily related, but they all sort of fit the idea that we're talking about tonight. I've never had a female boss. Every organization I've worked for has been led by men. They're wonderful, smart, talented, creative and charismatic, but I think it's interesting that since I had come up in my career, so many more organizations are run by women. And I'll get to that in just a moment. According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, on average, women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. And I did experience this firsthand when I moved to New York to work for the Charitable Trust. My predecessor had been a gentleman, and since I was the trust's chief administrator, I had payroll responsibilities. So in reviewing the payroll records it came to [laughter] my attention that I was being paid exactly 50% less than he had been paid. That was quite a shock. There are still very few mentorship programs for women who are interested in pursuing arts administration career paths. There are many women who are members of ensembles and notably some ensembles are composed entirely of women. But there are still relatively few women in major orchestras. The paths from performing to administration are very serendipitous. There are few official structures where performers can know about the existence of arts jobs and arts administration programs. The wage discrepancy issue that I mentioned earlier has been talked about for years, but another aspect of this conversation that women continue to face is the work/life balance. Our cultural understanding of mothers and fathers roles really must be further examined, and our administrative work places need to become more family friendly. Young women who look to the arts for careers have so many high profile role models now that didn't exist years ago. In addition to my co panelists who have very high profile and prominent jobs in the arts, there's Deborah Borda who is president and CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Fellow New England Conservatory [inaudible] I'm happy to say. There's your own Deborah Rutter who is president of the Kennedy Center, and before that of the Chicago Symphony. And we just saw Marin Alsop, Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony. So these women who are prominent in the arts, in administration, and in performing, and they can become now role models for the younger generation. They have become role models for younger women. So I have a vision for the field of arts of administration that I'd like to share with you for the year 2025. We'll reconvene then maybe, Anne, and we'll have this panel and see if we've gotten there. Learning the principles of arts administration will be required for anyone studying the performing arts. This will be the norm and not the exception. For those seeking arts administration careers, paid internships will part of their curriculum. Salaries in arts administration positions will not be lower than their counterparts in the for profit arena. And artists and arts administrators will be welcomed additions to the boards of civic organizations and corporations because of the creativity and innovative thinking that they bring to the table. And there will be parody among men and women in wages, family care, and job opportunities throughout the field. I think we can do it, and I look forward to being a part of that world. Thank you. ^M00:29:43 [ Applause ] ^M00:29:49 >> Annette McLean: Wonderful. And Chairman Chu, you have the very broadest overview of all aspects of music in our nation. >> Jane Chu: Well, I -- now I'm in a position where I focus on all the arts, all the genders, and appreciate them all. But I come today with a perspective of my own love for music, and my own musical training and how it has informed my own leadership style. I don't think that there's ever been a better time to appreciate what the arts can provide in terms of leadership. ^M00:30:22 Because we live in this world that is filled with constant change, and there's new information flying toward us from multiple directions simultaneously and everybody has an opinion and everybody wants the opinion heard. And so we need creative leaders who will sort through and bring together those [inaudible] pieces and who will find new solutions to be able to bridge those opposing perspectives. And for me, and possible for you, and certainly my panelists, the arts are a key piece in building new paths toward this common ground. So I was born into multiple cultures, often with seemingly opposing perspectives, and if I had not been involved in the arts I'm not sure that I would have been able to make as much sense of my own life. My parents met in the United States, but both came from China, during a time when their home country was in a lot of turmoil. They came to America in the 1940s, or 1948 and 1949, and they never saw their families again. I on the other hand was born in Oklahoma and I grew up in Arkansas, 11,000 miles away from China, and equally as far away from the traditional Chinese way of life. So I juggled living in two opposite cultures simultaneously. They spoke Mandarin to each other at home, but they wanted me to speak English. They liked to eat bok choy and noodles, I liked to eat pizza and corn dogs. So I've really grown up navigating through situations where people around me have different perspectives, and many times they're opposite from each other, and learning how to appreciate those bok choy/corn dog settings without force fitting everybody to be exactly like each other. And in the midst of those settings the arts, and in particular my music training, have been the most soothing form of expression and of communication for me. And so they opened the door for me to develop my own leadership skills. And I've come to realize that the type of really effective leadership that's needed for tomorrow's leaders and probably for today boils down to only one thing, and that is how we do something, how we lead is just as important as what we do. How we do something is just as important as what we do. And I can say without reservation that my own musical training has given me techniques to use when working with others, for example, in working with different styles. Even if you have a job where you work mostly in solitude, there will always be times when you work alongside others. And when you work with others you will encounter people with different styles, different ways of doing things, certainly different perspectives from yours, and this can happen with the smallest nuance. You might make a comment as a leader, and somebody on your team, because they have a completely learning style, may interpret your comment in a completely different way. So working with other people also requires that I have an understanding of how my coworkers assemble information, how they make decisions, how they act at work. I don't perform Beethoven the same way I perform [inaudible], and I don't approach a coworker who is focused upon facts and logical analysis the same way I approach another coworker who is focused on whether they feel good in a situation. And so in one of my previous jobs I had a board member who had almost the exact opposite style from me, and this board member turned out to be one of my greatest gifts. Because I had to really prepare myself when I communicated with him, and sometimes sending him an e-mail message took a long time for me to compose even a paragraph, because I knew that he would read the message from me from his own perspective and now mine. So I couldn't insert any shorthand words or make any leaps because he would either jump to the wrong conclusion or he would just not get it. But he was such a good board member and he had so much information and experience that would make the organization better, as long as I understood how to communicate with him. So thank goodness for my musical training, because if the board member was, say, a Hindemith piano sonata and I was a Scarlatti sonata then I made sure that I learned how to play in the style of Hindemith. And so as a result I became a far more versatile leader, with more tools in my leadership tool belt as a result of my musical training. In listening to others, and paying attention how to listen to my environment, my musical training taught me how to listen with a keen ear. So to hear the nuances of a composition, many people, perhaps most, can tell the difference between loud versus quiet. But my musical training taught me to differentiate between forte and [inaudible] between loud and not quite as loud, but not quiet. And so to move at an andante tempo instead of [inaudible], so not just moving fast or slowly, but knowing the differences in the speeds of walking. So is it time for me to race walk or do I need to walk leisurely. This same ability to discern these subtleties lets us listen intently to others, and that keep ear training differentiates leaders who are really good listeners from leaders who pay no attention to those they're leading. And really great listening skills allow us to move our relationship from surface to deep, because your staff is no longer just following you because you're the anointed the leader, they're following you because they felt heard by you. And you're ability to listen to others can transform them because they have experienced your in-depth ability to hear them, and discern the subtleties. In pulling people together, leadership ability is highly dependent upon being able to pull people together, and you can't really lead unless you have followers. And often the people that you're pulling together, not only come from different perspectives, but they may also not share the same objectives as you. So when do you give a people -- a group of people free reign to express themselves in a manner that's different from you, and when do you reign in everybody in the group so that together you can accomplish a single objective. Composers ask those same questions about the music they write. They look for the times and the pieces of music where a single musician might take a riff on her own, and they look for other times when all of the performers have come back together for the sake of the composition. And my musical training has helped me understand when one voice needs to be prominent and when to bring that voice back down and let another different voice step out and make itself known. Really effective leaders know when to step forward, but they also know when to hold back so that others can lead. They know when to dance with exuberance and they know when to be sensitive to the stillness of the music. And here's the key, neither approach is right by itself all the time. And an effective leader understands this same context. And because the arts are a form of communication, and we know that there are different ways to express ourselves, we can pay close attention to what someone is saying, even if they're using a different vocabulary set, because, after all, expressing ourselves through the arts is just using a different vocabulary set. So I'm an only child, and I was the first generation to be born in the United States. And I spoke English in my school life and my parents spoke Mandarin in my home life, and my parents were not musicians, nor were they arts aficionado, but when my father died of cancer when I was nine, those piano lessons that I had been taking dutifully turned out to be the only form of expression I could use to articulate my own grief as a child. Because music gave me a broader vocabulary than just the use of linear everyday words, and my music training has helped me understand that as a leader I can pay attention to the ways others learn. And at the heart of my musical training was creativity, so it's that same creativity that allows us to see the patterns and the connections and the possibilities when others don't see them. To acquire meaning and value and to build something from nothing, to transcend those situations which may appear to have only one solution, or possibly none, the creativity gives us that ability to see things in a different way and it involves courage to step out and do something in a way that hasn't been done before. Many of us in the arts are here because we need to create and we need to find ways to innovate, and to be able to use technologies, to deal with change, and to take those resources that are available to us at any moment in time, whether our resources are abundant or whether they're scarce, and use whatever we have to create value and meaning. And as leaders in creative fields, we have this great opportunity to provoke and create and inspire, and we have an opportunity to be lifelong learners so that we won't be boxed in by the same old tired arguments. We have an opportunity to stand in the midst of different perspectives without shrinking back, and to provide a working environment that allows people to generate new insights and solve old problems in new ways. To embolden creativity in others and pay attention to those fresh approaches and ways of thinking. So whether you have taken an oath of office, as I have, or you've started a company, or you've introduced an idea through a new approach, the arts can bring together ideas and people and perspectives, and from them generate something beyond what we could have envisioned on our own. The arts an integral component to my own leadership, and not just because I'm working in the arts field, but because the arts have taught me that how we do something is just as important as what we do, and that's the kind of leadership that I'm aiming for. Thank you. ^M00:40:51 ^M00:40:53 [ Applause ] ^M00:41:00 >> Annette McLean: You know, while you were speaking [inaudible] from Mrs. Coolidge that one can hear sometimes in our -- later in our exhibit, but it's so resonant at this moment, she said how wonderful it would be to have in the cabinet of secretary of fine arts. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to congratulate you on being that secretary. >> Jane Chu: Thank you. >> Annette McLean: Let's -- I wanted to just take a quick -- before we go further, I wanted to ask you a couple of quick questions, and think about this for a moment. How do we -- we talked about how you define leadership, how would you define the success, that's one thing. Do you have any comments for people about how do you -- how does one develop an authentic voice? Tonight we'll hear Meredith Monk, who has spent 50 years, she's celebrating 50 years as an artist, developing a very unique authentic voice of her own. Is there any comment you would care to make on that question, how to be an authentic self in this process of becoming a leader. That's a big question, I know. And then, okay, while you're resonating on that [laughter], while you're thinking about that, your Creativity Connects initiative involves three different sectors, business, private, giving and corporate involvement. Can you talk a little bit about that? >> Jane Chu: Well, we're launching an initiative called Creativity Connects, and it really is because we're starting to look across the nation and we're seeing that the arts are not off in a corner by themselves, and they're not a frill, but they infuse our lives every day in so many different ways. And sometimes they're the beauty of arts themselves, that's certainly the way I came into the arts. But we also see that they spike creativity in other settings, just as you had talked about -- both of you had talked about before, Margaret and Astrid. And so the Creativity Connects initiative is an opportunity not only to see the new ways people are creating -- I was trained and I don't -- maybe you were too, but I was trained certainly that when I wanted to either practice or create on my own, to sequester myself by myself in a room, shut the door, don't get tainted by these people because you want the purity and the authenticity of my own creation. What I love about that is I don't ever want to give up my own authenticity. But what I see is that I can do that still and be in the room and learn from others at the same time. So the Creativity Connects initiative is about hooking the arts to other areas. Arts in -- connected to business, arts connected to other sectors that want creativity. Science, technology, you can think of all kinds of design, fashion, culinary. So you'll start seeing, in addition to what we currently find, we'll add another program to spike having arts be in other sectors. Because other sectors are starting to say, wait a minute, we need the mindset of an artist, because we -- they are already helping us solve old problems in new ways. So that's what the initiative is about. >> Annette McLean: Beautiful. Back to success, any thoughts on how you feel? Because it's interesting, that's one of the things that comes up a lot when you read about these questions. You know, you talked about the work/life balance, and there's a book now, ^IT Unfinished Business ^NO by Anne-Marie Slaughter, that's a brand new book, that talks about this. And it talks about the culture, how we need to develop societal mechanisms for balancing care giving for the very old and the very young. And whether there is a way that our economic structure can support that, that is a huge question. But then, you know, faced with those challenges, what is success at a different point in a women artists life, a women administrator's life, that's an important question. Are there any other thoughts on the concept of vision? Because back to Mrs. Coolidge, she's the inspiration for this, have you had any thoughts about when you knew you were on the right track? >> Margaret Lioi: I'm still waiting to find out [laughter]. You know, it's interesting thinking about vision and success. I think what -- I think an important thing, certainly an important thing that we talk to our musician members about is -- well, two things. One is, certainly when I was performing as a pianist, there was a very clear hierarchical structure. So, you know, you would play for ballet classes, and then that was sort of the low rung for pianists. And then you would maybe play for education programs in schools. Then you might get a gig with a singer and you could have a few weeks of the tour. And I'm sure it was the same for string players. You would start doing things to get credentials, but your goal was to go up the ladder, and eventually play, you know, at Carnegie Hall or at the Kennedy Center. And now success is not looked at so much as a vertical line, but much more as a horizontal continuum. So that people who play engagements in schools, education is so important, and reaching young people is so important, and they'll do that maybe on a Thursday, and then on Friday they're playing in the concert hall. And then on Saturday maybe they decide they're playing in a coffee shop, just to reach people that maybe didn't come to the concert hall. So musicians and administrators as well I think are defining success not as starting at the bottom and going to the top, but what makes you happy every day, what makes you fulfilled every day. And I think that's a big difference. I think that technology and expressing yourself publically in a different kind of way from certainly when I was a younger person, that was not acceptable. There were -- there were only a few people who were allowed to have opinions and those people were called critics [laughter]. And it isn't that way anymore. So I think that success has redefined itself really. >> Annette McLean: Excellent. Excellent. You talked the other day about having said something there many kinds of artistic excellences in many paths, and I -- that -- I remembered that. This has been very interesting, and we appreciate your thoughts on the subject of leadership. And I know that time is running out so I want to give the audience a chance to ask some questions, if you would like to. We can open it up now for just a few moment. And we'll have the microphones coming around just here to facilitate this. Okay. >> I just wanted to thank -- everyone of your statements has been just so incredibly meaningful. I wanted to thank you all. >> Margaret Lioi: Thank you. >> And as I was listening to each one of you, for example, I went through school, high school, college and graduate school never having a single women professor in chemistry, in the sciences, at all. And so the parallels between music and science in our career times is identical. And I applaud the Creativity Connects, because I have to say that most of the women scientists I know also play an instrument, and that's almost, you know, an absolutely necessary therapeutic counterbalance to that solitary scientific endeavor. And so I wanted to ask, though, for example, the media lab at MIT, which I happen to know very well, has -- you know, the media is [inaudible]. And so the arts and the sciences have intertwined over the years, not necessarily with women involved. But I guess I'm interested in your perspective on the historical connection and how that feeds into some of the connectivities of -- and perhaps if you have some experience through your own musical education, you mentioned at Mount Holyoake. You're obviously dealing with cellists who are majoring in non-music, if you have any comments on that as well. >> Astrid Schween: Yeah, sure. Well, that's one of the reasons I enjoy my position at Mount Holyoake so much -- it's just a little short. There we go. I do, as I said, work with so many young women who are, you know, likely future chairman's of major -- chairpersons of major corporations or possibly even future presidents. They're so bright and so ambitious, and so creative. ^M00:50:39 And when they take the time to come for a weekly cello lesson or a chamber music session, I find it's a great opportunity for us to connect on this, especially in the level of communication. And how does one find a voice and amplify that through the texture of the group. Specifically you talked about media and how that interacts with -- intersects with music. I think -- you know, I was listing several classes that Juilliard has offered, and I have to say as somebody who is stepping in, I grew up at that school, I was there from age seven to 20, so I do feel like there's a little bit of my blood on the walls everywhere [laughter]. And I'm just so impressed now coming back as a professor to see the innovations that have been made by President Polisi and that he's addressing this very issue. That it's not enough to be creative within your own Scarlatti or [inaudible], but you have to create a world in which you can share this music. And I think it's no accident that classical music became so kind of single minded for a while, and was not successful at being all inclusive. So in a way, to have our young people now who are students use the media. They're using social media, they're doing all sorts of things to get -- to connect young people and introduce them to classical music. I think it's fantastic. Exposure is everything. It's the reason I play the cello, and I imagine my colleagues here had some similar experiences. >> Hi. Very much appreciate all that you all are doing. Thank you very much for all your dedication and commitment, because I know it must have been mammoth over all these years. And I would just like to give a little shout out to the composers. >> Jane Chu: Yeah. >> It seems like still that's a section that is missing somehow. I think of the commissions done here by the Library of Congress, and I wonder how many have been won by women. When they were talking about their panel several months ago, and picking people, I said, do you do an anonymous or do you do it some other way. And they said, "No, we know who we're seating." And I just wonder if some blind competitions might be better to give women a chance that perhaps unconsciously the men may not be as, you know, accepting of. But also in general, I can't think of a single woman composer or note, except in the popular field. Meredith Monk, Carol -- what's her name, Carol King. What's that? Carol Sager [assumed spelling], just in popular field. I can't think -- I can't think of a lot of -- >> Annette McLean: I think of Jennifer Higdon [assumed spelling] and [inaudible]. We're so pleased to say that -- >> Okay. Except [inaudible] back in the 16th Century. So I'm just hoping that all of you all who are on panels are watching out for the women who are trying to get into that. >> Annette McLean: I know that Chamber Music America is very, very much aware of this. And, Margaret, we've talked about this about how gender blind listening is important, and how you encourage and seek out submissions for women. And I can respond briefly on behalf of the Library saying that we are very excited that we do have a number of important substantive commissions by female composers in the last few years. And we have a couple more coming up this year. If you look at our brochure we are going to have Gabriella Alana Fronk [assumed spelling], a new [inaudible] from her [inaudible] Society. But talk a little bit about -- yeah. This is -- ^M00:54:36 [ Inaudible Speaker ] ^M00:54:42 Or we can swap microphones for a second. >> Jane Chu: There you go. Go ahead. >> Margaret Lioi: Thank you. Yes, actually Caroline Shaw just won the Pulitzer Prize last year for music. I think it was last year. And we have many, many -- actually Chamber Music America has commissioned many women composers. But you are absolutely right, they are not as prominently programmed as male composers on chamber music programs. I can only speak for chamber music. But we do an awful lot of outreach. When we are having our commissioning program we contact the women who have received commissions by us, and ask them to, you know, spread the word so that more women will apply. We've also -- we have a conference every years, and we have had many, many sessions on programming compositions by women. It's a an issue in the classical musical field, it is even a bigger issue in the jazz field. There are so few women jazz musicians and women jazz band leaders, and I think this is just part of the field that has to be brought up to the same level as the performing parts of the field. And to do it I think we have to be very intentional. There have to be some very intentional steps taken so that women have the opportunities to compose and to be programmed. So thank you for bringing that up. >> Annette McLean: I wanted to mention an article that you might find interesting, unfortunately we're -- I think we're almost out of time. But the Guardian actually has a lot of coverage of these kinds of issues, the British newspaper. And there was an article very recently how the male domination of classical music may finally be coming to an end, which is interesting. But the article [inaudible] Jessica Ducheon [assumed spelling] is the women who wrote the article. But what resonated in the back of my mind about this was she talks about the BBC recently, Radio 3, did long series of radio programs about women composers. And recently there was a British music exam on which almost no composers were women, or maybe only one was on the exam. So this is a very timely issue. But the great news is that there is a lot of very exciting things happening and going on in this area. So maybe just one more question, then we need to go to the concert. >> Good evening everyone, I'm Kristy Wagner [assumed spelling], Starlee Wagner is my pen name, Starlee is my stage name. I'd like to know what can be done politically, men and women together, to bring about the creation of a Cabinet secretary of culture. Hungary, since time in [inaudible] has had a Minister of Culture. France has had, Greece has had. It's indefensible that we do not. >> Jane Chu: Why are you looking at me? >> Margaret Lioi: Well - oh, here. >> Annette McLean: I think just I'll start out by just referring again to the wonderful comment that we were talking about earlier, Mrs. Coolidge said, we have a secretary of hygiene, one of education, and one of welfare, but we do not have a secretary of fine arts. In fact, to have Jane Chu is pretty amazing. You're right that we need to move forward, and I'll let you speak to that. >> Margaret Lioi: Well, I -- that's actually a very controversial idea, and there are many, many people who are not in favor of it. Not because -- because when you have a cultural minister that also leads to other kinds of issues that we don't have to deal with here in the United States. I think that actually the -- having an agency the way that we do is actually -- I think some of the European countries look to the United States to see how robust our philanthropy is, which is based a great deal on the presence of the National Endowment, and how it's grants leverage money from the private sector. That doesn't happen in the same way when you have a Minister of Culture. So I understand people's -- the impetus of we need somebody there that's just for culture, but there are other consequences of having that system that we don't have in this country. And so I'm not so much in favor of -- I'm in favor of Jane Chu [laughter]. I think she should do it. >> Annette McLean: I think that we are out of time. We very much appreciate your coming. We thank you, Chairman Chu, Margaret Lioi, Astrid Schween. ^M00:59:54 [ Applause ] ^M00:59:57 >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov. ^E01:00:02