Canton Symphony Orchestra knows the need for change within the orchestral community. The tradition of classical music has ignored many communities that have contributed to the development and canon of repertoire played in the concert hall. While Canton Symphony is a regional orchestral, change starts at the smallest level. With “Orchestrating Change”, the Canton Symphony Orchestra hopes to facilitate conversations that will make the concert hall a more welcoming place for previously ignored communities as well as create more acceptance and diversity on the stage. GOALS - Be a platform for open discussion about diversity and inclusion in the orchestral community. - Be a platform for Black, Latinx, Asian, female, and LGBTQAI+ musicians, composers and administrators as well as other ignored demographics. - Educate our audience to issues surrounding diversity and inclusion and expose our current patrons to more music by Black, Latinx, female, Asian, and LGBTQAI+ musicians and composers. - Bring new audience to the orchestra by creating a more welcoming community that is reflective of the demographics in our Canton, Ohio community. - Move the CSO forward to programming more diverse music as well as increasing diversity within the organization.
Episodes
Friday Feb 25, 2022
Friday Feb 25, 2022
Today is the first time in our podcast’s history that we welcome two guests: Jules Biber and Kallie Sugatski from ChamberQUEER, an LGBTQ+ chamber music organization in New York City dedicated to presenting and performing queer composers and musicians and highlighting historical queer figures in Classical music.
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.
https://orchestratingchange.com/3-4-chamberqueer/
Friday Feb 11, 2022
Friday Feb 11, 2022
Today, we are joined by Jazmin Morales, Assistant Director of the Center for Innovation and Community Impact at the Colburn School, a prestigious conservatory in Los Angeles. She is the founder of Fortissima, an artistic leadership development program for women of color in classical music. She is also an adjunct faculty member in the Arts Leadership Program at the University of Southern California, a consultant for NPR’s From the Top and the Smithsonian Latino Center and serves on the board of both the City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles and the Little Village Foundation.
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.
Friday Jan 28, 2022
Friday Jan 28, 2022
We are joined today by Jeri Lynne Johnson, founder and artistic director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra in Philadelphia. For over a decade, Black Pearl has been a model for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the orchestral industry as a racially diverse ensemble performing for a racially diverse audience - something that the rest of the industry has only recently begun to talk about. Jeri’s career has taken her all over the world, where she has become the first Black woman to ever conduct some of the world’s leading orchestras. She is also the founder of DEI Arts Consulting, which helps arts organizations to better serve the diverse communities in which we exist.
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.
Friday Jan 14, 2022
Friday Jan 14, 2022
Orchestrating Change is back! We are so excited to present the first episode of Season 3!
Our guest today is MJ Albacete, a native Cantonian who spent his entire professional career with the Canton Museum of Art, including serving as executive director for over 25 years. An arts educator equally versed in the visual and performing arts, he teaches classes on the history of art and architecture at Kent State Stark, has given pre-concert lectures both here at the Canton Symphony and at the Cleveland Orchestra, and hosts our online “Music History with MJ” series. He is a lifelong patron of the Canton Symphony and has been a loyal subscriber for 45 years.
This podcast focuses on the voices of underrepresented professionals in the classical music industry, but this episode is a little different. To start off Season 3, we brought in long-time subscriber and music lover MJ Albacete to discuss why he thinks working towards a more equitable and diverse future is important for classical music. MJ is not a minority but represents a majority of the Canton Symphony Orchestra audience. We hope that his perspective will provide insight into the importance of this podcast and other initiatives like it. We hope you enjoy.
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.
Friday Aug 13, 2021
Friday Aug 13, 2021
This episode marks the end of the first Orchestrating Change Leadership Program and Season 2 of the Orchestrating Change podcast. All summer, 9 college students met via Zoom on Tuesdays and Thursdays to discuss issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion; network with over 30 industry professionals; and develop skills to become to next leaders in the field of music. Along with this learning, the OCLP students worked together to create an educational program that would seek to actively combat issues of accessibility and inequality in our Canton community. Their final presentation left the staff and board of the CSO, along with community members, excited for what the future will hold here at the symphony. We cannot wait for 2022 and the next Orchestrating Change Leadership Program!
We would like to thank OCLP participants Samaria Hill, Valerie Mathis, and Irene Guggenheim-Triana for lending their voices for this episode. "...it definitely lived up to its name, "Orchestrating Change". We as a collective group actually put something together, networked, and made something happen, which pleasantly surprises me. I feel like I contributed to something very important in the world of music and I'm very proud and blessed to have been a part of this!" - 2021 OCLP Participant
Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. Go to www.cantonsymphony.org/orchestrating-change/ 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.
Friday Aug 06, 2021
Friday Aug 06, 2021
We are joined today by internationally renowned pianist Shuai Wang. She performs extensively as both a soloist and chamber musician, including an appearance with the Canton Symphony Orchestra. She is currently on faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and spends her summers teaching at Interlochen in Michigan. She is an alumna of both institutions, having received her high school diploma at the Interlochen Arts Academy and all of her post-secondary training up to and including her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at CIM.
Chinese-American pianist Shuai Wang is recognized internationally as an accomplished soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. She has performed extensively in major venues such as Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, and Symphony Space in New York, the Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago, the Gardner Museum in Boston and the Buffalo Chamber Music Series. Wang has appeared as soloist with the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, Canton Symphony Orchestra, Tianjin Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, Heights Chamber Symphony, Suburban Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland State University Symphony Orchestra. She performed under the batons of Ton Koopman, JoAnn Falletta, Gerhardt Zimmermann, Robert Moody, Renchang Fu and Muhai Tang.
Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. Go to www.cantonsymphony.org/orchestrating-change/ 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.
Monday Aug 02, 2021
Monday Aug 02, 2021
Our guest today is Ryan Walks, Manager of the Talent Development Program at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which has provided training and career development to young Classical musicians in the Black and Latino communities for over twenty-five years. Prior to entering the world of arts administration, he was trained as a trumpet player and music educator, receiving all of his degrees from historically Black universities.
Ryan first joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2017 in the Development Department and accepted the position as the Talent Development Program (TDP) 25th Anniversary Coordinator in June of 2018. Soon after, Ryan stepped in as Interim TDP Manager and was later named permanent TDP Manager in June of 2019. In his roles with the TDP, Ryan has worked diligently to deliver the highest results possible and has demonstrated his strong commitment to the program. A team player and diplomat, Ryan has done a great job of supporting the musicians, staff, volunteers and most importantly the TDP Fellows and their families. During the 2018/19 season, Ryan helped coordinate all aspects of the successful TDP Recital Series in the Fall of 2018, the TDP 25th Anniversary Celebration and Building Bridges Symposium.
Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. Go to www.cantonsymphony.org/orchestrating-change/ 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.
Friday Jul 23, 2021
Friday Jul 23, 2021
Today on Orchestrating Change, we welcome LaFlovia “Flo” Ginanni. She has been at United Way of Greater Stark County since 2013. She is currently the Director of United Way’s Project Blueprint for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion-a board and committee preparedness program designed to recruit, train, and place ethnically diverse leaders into policy making roles to enhance the effectiveness of nonprofit agencies. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor, as well as a certified Chemical Dependency Counselor Assistant. She holds dual bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Sociology, in addition to master’s degrees in both Leadership Studies and Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She has worked in the social service, mental health, and criminal justice fields.
Flo is a member of the Stark County NAACP, Strengthening Stark’s Minority Action Committee, and Coming Together Stark County. She has served on the Board of Directors of Community One Credit Union since 2014 and is an active and involved member of L.I.F.E. Ministries International Church. In addition to being committed to living out her Christian values, she is very family oriented and sees that as her primary life’s work!
Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. Go to www.cantonsymphony.org/orchestrating-change/ 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.
Friday Jul 16, 2021
Friday Jul 16, 2021
Today, we welcome Geetha Somayajula, a dedicated arts administrator, singer, conductor, and teacher currently based in Portland, Oregon. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where she earned degrees in choral music (BA) and business administration (BS). She has sung in prestigious ensembles and festival choruses including the youth chorus of the Oregon Bach Festival, the 2017 ACDA National Collegiate Honor Choir, and the USC Concert Choir and Chamber Singers. As the highlight of her academic work, Somayajula was awarded the U.S. Fulbright Scholarship for the 2018-19 academic year to study the practice, performance, and pedagogy of Indian classical music.
Currently, Somayajula serves on the board of directors of Synchromy Music, a new music collective in Los Angeles, and Pacific Youth Choir, a children's choir in Portland. Additionally, she actively recruits students and creatives for the Fulbright program around the country as a Fulbright Alumni Ambassador. Professionally, she is a strategist at PricewaterhouseCoopers and provides guidance to Fortune 500 clients to help solve their toughest digital challenges.
Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. Go to www.cantonsymphony.org/orchestrating-change/ 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.
Monday Jul 12, 2021
Monday Jul 12, 2021
Today on Orchestrating Change, our guest is Rick Robinson: a composer and double bassist who was a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for 22 years. Prior to joining the DSO, he played here in the Canton Symphony, as well as up the road with the Akron Symphony. He is the founder of Cut Time Productions, a publishing company dedicated to producing chamber arrangements of orchestral masterworks in an effort to make this music more accessible and available to wider audiences. An accomplished composer of original works as well, his Essay After Sibelius will be performed here in Canton next season.
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FltAVoHFyBU
During 22 years playing double bass in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO), Rick Robinson began attempting the difficult task of resetting the context of classical music in broader communities. Robinson began, however, in a fourth-generation musical family of Highland Park (MI). Then he began to lead as a bass student at Interlochen Arts Academy, Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory and summer festivals at Aspen and Spoleto. He held principal positions with both Akron and Canton symphony orchestras 1982-85, the Portland (ME) orchestra, as well as the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra directed then by composer John Williams.
Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. Go to www.cantonsymphony.org/orchestrating-change/ 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.