Bio
Aaron Dworkin
Aaron Dworkin is founder and president of the Sphinx Organization, a national organization devoted to youth development and diversity in classical music. He is a member of the Obama National Arts Policy Committee and was the president's first nominee to the National Council on the Arts. An author, social entrepreneur, education advocate, and an accomplished electric and acoustic violinist, Dworkin has received extensive awards for his work including the Detroit Symphony's Lifetime Achievement Award, National Governors Association Distinguished Service to State Government Award, and Crain's 40 Under 40 Award, among many others. He currently serves on the board of directors of Michigan's University Musical Society, the National Guild for Community Schools of the Arts, the National Society for the Gifted and Talented, and he sits on several strategic planning committees including the League of American Symphony Orchestras. He was a 2005 MacArthur fellow.
David Finckel
David Finckel is artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A cellist, Finckel enjoys a multifaceted career as concert performer, recording artist, educator, arts administrator, and cultural entrepreneur, which places him in the ranks of today's most influential classical musicians. His concert appearances as orchestral soloist, duo recitalist with pianist Wu Han, and cellist of the Grammy Award-winning Emerson String Quartet take him to the world's most prestigious concert series and festivals. Finckel's wide-ranging musical activities also include the launch of ArtistLed, classical music’s first musician-directed, Internet-based recording company. Finckel and Wu Han are also the founders and artistic directors of Music@Menlo, a chamber music festival in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Wu Han
Wu Han is artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A pianist, Han ranks among the most esteemed and influential classical musicians in the world today. She appears regularly in many prestigious venues across the United States, Europe, and the Far East as both soloist and chamber musician, and has toured extensively as duo pianist with cellist David Finckel. Han's wide-ranging musical activities include the founding of ArtistLed, classical music's first musician-directed and Internet-based recording company. Han and Finckel are also founders artistic directors of Music@Menlo, a chamber music festival in Silicon Valley that has garnered international acclaim since its inception in 2003. Prior to launching Music@Menlo, Wu Han and Finckel served for three seasons as artistic directors of SummerFest La Jolla.
Damian Woetzel
Damian Woetzel is the director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program. A former principal dancer with New York City Ballet, Woetzel is also the artistic director of the Vail International Dance Festival, the founding director of the Jerome Robbins Foundation’s New Essential Works Program, and he works with Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road Connect Program in the New York City public schools. He is active as a director and producer, and among his recent projects, Woetzel was the director of the first performance of the White House Dance Series hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama, and of an arts salute to Stephen Hawking at Lincoln Center for the World Science Festival. Woetzel has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School. In 2009, President Obama appointed Woetzel to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.
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Encyclopædia Britannica Article
- music
Art concerned with combining vocal or instrumental sounds for beauty of form or emotional expression, usually according to cultural standards of rhythm, melody, and, in most Western music, harmony. Music most often implies sounds with distinct pitches that are arranged into melodies and organized into patterns of rhythm and metre. The melody will usually be in a certain key or mode, and in Western music it will often suggest harmony that may be made explicit as accompanying chords or counterpoint. Music is an art that, in one guise or another, permeates every human society. It is used for such varied social purposes as ritual, worship, coordination of movement, communication, and entertainment.
- music on britannica.com
© 2010 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
