For nearly twenty years, I had the privilege of leading major American orchestras, which are not exactly known as bastions of change. But I could not have imagined a place more conservative than orchestras until I found professional music schools! In moving from the classical music industry to the training ground for those professionals, I saw very clearly the need for a new approach.

Twenty-five years ago American orchestras began a conversation about what would happen to excellence in performance if orchestras broadened their missions to focus on education and community engagement. The fear, unfounded, was that excellence would be compromised. The opposite was true. One sees an identical conversation today in our professional schools — a fear that if we ask students to stretch beyond the traditional focus of mastering performance skills, then excellence will be jeopardized.

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book, Built to Last, call these kinds of false choices the “Tyranny of the Or” versus the “Genius of the And.” We must embrace and teach the "Genius of the And." It is possible to be both an outstanding performer and a citizen artist — indeed it’s necessary to be both.

Read the full article about protecting arts programs at Americans for the Arts.