Millennial Classical Musicians: A Who’s Who of Rising Classical Stars (Part 1)

By Catherine Starek – Classical Music Contributor, Gen Y Hub’s Millennial Magazine

Classical music…it’s stuffy, boring, and something that only old people enjoy, right? I beg to differ (and I’ll prove it to you)! While the term “classical” may be misleading, classical music is actually a very exciting, inspiring, and powerful musical genre. Millennial musicians are not only embracing the past, they are also shaping the future of classical music performance and putting a fresh twist on what it means to be a classical musician. As a fellow Millennial and modern classical musician, I am happy to shine a growing spotlight on a hand-selected list of young classical superstars. Stay tuned throughout the Millennial Classical Musicians mini-series to get the scoop on all eight of these fantastic modern musicians.

• Jourdan Urbach – 21, violin
• Nicola Benedetti – 25, violin
• Alisa Weilerstein – 30, cello
• Nadia Sirota – 30, viola
• Gustavo Dudamel – 31 32, baton
• Lang Lang – 31, piano
• Hilary Hanh – 31, violin
• Cameron Carpenter – 32, organ

Classical Context
When talking about classical music, however – an era of music that emerged around 1750 – it’s difficult to keep history out of the conversation. Don’t worry though, I promise to keep it brief! The classical music era extends from the mid-18th to the early-19th centuries (c. 1750 – c. 1830).[1] This era is often associated with the works of Beethoven and Mozart, two of the most well known and respected classical musicians and composers in the world.

Modern Classical Musicians
Fast-forward to the 21st century and classical music is still widely heard, appreciated, and performed. Millennial musicians are mastering the classical style, while infusing their personalities, passions, and interests into their performances. The first of eight musicians in the Millennial Classical Musicians line up is 21-year-old, American concert violinist Jourdan Urbach.

JOURDAN URBACH – Musician, Composer, and Philanthropist
Jourdan Urbach was born in December of 1991. Just seven years later, Jourdan hit the stage, making his professional debut on the violin. For comparison, Mozart premiered around the age of five. Music critics delight in Jourdan’s “buttery smooth” sound and the brilliance and technical acuity of his playing. Recognized as a child prodigy, this young superstar has already become a Grammy-winning concert violinist. He has even had the rare opportunity to perform – twice – as a featured artist at Carnegie Hall, an internationally renowned concert hall in Manhattan.

The pressure to succeed is understandably intense in these high-profile performances. His strong love of music, however, and positive attitude helps to carry him through. He reflects on the performing experience and his mindset as a modern classical musician in a 2011 interview with Charles Osgood, “I get a huge rush out of performing,” he shares, “and I can tolerate the practice because I know it leads up to that.”

Jourdan Urbach performing Aerion:

The Cherry On Top
Jourdan Urbach is not only a tremendously talented musician, he’s also passionately philanthropic and participates in what he calls “Responsible Music.” According to Jourdan, “music is designed to be heard, but it is also to be used to further the greater good.” In this spirit, he founded Concerts for a Cure (originally Children Helping Children) when he was just seven years old. Over the past 14 years, his charity has raised more than $5 million through classical music, benefiting children in New York hospitals and the international medical community. Jourdan’s musical and philanthropic passions play an important role in his service as an international representative of the United Nations’ Arts for Peace program that he promotes on his website,  “As a Goodwill Ambassador and Artist-in-Residence for UN (Arts for Peace), Jourdan serves as a cultural link between the UN community and the artistic community in NY and abroad.”

Jourdan actively impacts the world through his music and dedication to society. As a modern classical music performer and composer, he is vibrant, successful, and clearly high in demand. I look forward to watching his music career and charitable efforts grow and evolve, affecting the hearts and minds of people around the world.

JOURDAN URBACH
Age: 21
Nationality: American
Instrument: Violin
Claim to Fame: Grammy-winning concert violinist; Contemporary composer; Founder of Children Helping Children
Facebook: JourdanUrbachMusic
Twitter: @JourdanUrbach
Website: jourdanurbach.com

As we move on to the second remarkable Millennial classical musician on the list, you’ll see how she impacts society through her music and advocacy efforts as well, and has risen to classical stardom with modern flair.

NICOLA BENEDETTI – The Silver Violinist
Introducing the ravishing, young classical violinist, Nicola Benedetti. This beautiful, Scotland native has already captured the hearts (and ears) of audiences throughout Great Britain and across the world. She will turn 26 in July.

Nicola’s musical journey began when she started violin lessons at the age of five. Approximately ten years later, she entered the Yehudi Menuhin School (YMS) in Surrey and studied with the acclaimed violin professor Natalia Boyarsky. After leaving YMS, she continued to develop her musical talent as a student of the Polish and Russian violinists, Maciej Rakowski and Pavel Vernikov, respectively. Her talents have been featured with professional symphonies and among prominent music festivals and events all over the world. And when she’s not touring, she enjoys playing regularly in her chamber trio with cellist (and also boyfriend of 10 years) Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk.

Big Sister
Nicola is also fiercely dedicated to music education and participates as a “Big Sister” and Board Member for Sistema Scotland. In recognition for her service to music and charity, she was appointed by the Queen of England to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours.

Life Achievements
Since the launch of her career as a modern classical musician, Nicola has managed to accumulate a spectacular list of accomplishments:

• BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2004, performing the unconventional Szymanowski Violin Concerto
• Recipient of the Classical BRIT Award for Young British Classic Performer in 2008
• Debuted at the 2010 BBC Proms
• Signed exclusively with Decca Classics in 2011
• Best Female Artist at the Classic Brits in 2012
• Listed as Classical “Best Female Artist” in iTunes Best of 2012
• Released a tremendously successful CD, The Silver Violin

The Silver Violin on SoundCloud:

Bringing Sexy Back to Classical Music
Nicola produces the warmest and most heartfelt violin tones. She plays the Gariel Stradivarius (c. 1717), which is considered to be one of the highest quality and most valuable violins in the world – it’s considered the Gucci of instruments. Her modern-day patron, bank executive Jonathan Moulds, purchased the Strad for her to play for a mere £10 million, or the equivalent of nearly $15.5 million today.

Although she is known for her performance of classical music, she is also unafraid to dive into a wide variety of repertoire. Her latest album The Silver Violin is Hollywood gold, bringing the iconic sounds of the silver screen to her Silver Violin. The enormous success of her CD led to The Silver Violin Tour, which took place this past March in nine venues across Scotland.

NICOLA BENEDETTI
Age: 25
Nationality: Scottish/Italian
Instrument: Violin
Claim to Fame: Best Female Classical Artist; plays the Gariel Stradivarius; Sistema Scotland – Big Sister and Board Member
Facebook: Nicola Benedetti Violin
Twitter: @NickyBenedetti
Website: nicolabenedetti.co.uk

Millennial musicians, such as violinists Nicola Benedetti and Jourdan Urbach, are taking the world’s stage by storm; challenging convention; and providing amazing classical music performances for growing audiences, excited listeners, and a variety of populations across the globe. Through music, modern classical musicians are conveying a message of passion and beauty, education and healing, and perhaps most of all, a message of encouragement and hope.

The next article in the Millennial Classical Musicians mini-series will feature a pioneering violist, and one of the greatest advocates for El Sistema, a revolutionary music education program originating in Venezuela; His weapon of choice – the baton.

Originally Published June 28, 2013 – genyhub.com

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[1] http://www.naxos.com/education/brief_history.asp

Pairing Sight with Sound: More on Symphonic Photochoreography

As I discussed in my previous post, symphony orchestras are beginning to explore innovative audio-visual performance opportunities, such as James Westwater’s symphonic photochoreography.

Symphonic Photochoreography — what exactly is that?

As founder James Westwater explains: “Symphonic photochoreography is an innovative art form that engages audiences worldwide with evocative, multi-image photographic essays choreographed and performed live to selected works of classical music.” Learn more>>

Who’s Doing It?

Here are some examples of visionary orchestral ensembles, effectively shaping the 21st century symphony orchestra performance and audience engagement landscape.

1. The Concert Artists of Baltimore:
The Concert Artists of Baltimore (CAB) is exploring new ways of providing musical performance and enhancing audience experiences through the use of visual media in orchestral performance.

In collaboration with the CAB orchestra, Maestro Polochick, and Westwater Arts, The Concert Artists of Baltimore presented a symphonic photochoreography Maestro Series concert – “a multi-media extravaganza pairing concert favorites with stunning images of nature.”

Performance Pieces:
Copland: Three Old American Songs
Copland: Appalachian Spring
Barber: Adagio
Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite III
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending

2. Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has also collaborated with Westwater Arts to provide an audio-visual symphony concert, contributing to Westwater’s “Kids, Cameras and Classics™” series.

It’s a great way to engage young people with classical music and your orchestra. KC&C is interactive, hands-on, innovative, educational, empowering, skill-developing, collaborative, spirit-lifting, kid-friendly and readily fundable.

Baltimore Symphony performs a Westwater KCC piece. http://westwaterarts.com/involve.html

3. Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra

Our ‘Heroes’ concert was an excellent example of what we mean when we say that we are not merely an orchestra in Boulder, but rather ‘Boulder’s orchestra.’ [The concert] demonstrated not only our commitment to offering ways to enhance and deepen the impact of a musical experience, but also our determination to reflect our community’s spirit of discovery and civic-mindedness. — Michael Butterman, Music Director & Conductor

Other examples of audio-visual concerts

4. North Carolina Symphony – The Planets: An HD Odyssey
In early February, the Women of North Carolina Master Chorale and the North Carolina Symphony performed “The Planets: An HD Odyssey,” compliments of Opus3 Artists.  The performance offered a stunning combination of “Holst’s symphonic powerhouse, The Planets, live with HD images from NASA projected on the big screen.”

Performance Pieces:
Richard Strauss: Fanfare from Also sprach Zarathustra
Johann Strauss, Jr.: On the Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz, Op. 314
John Williams: The Battle from Star Wars
arr. Custer: Star Trek Through the Years
Holst: The Planets, Op. 32

“The images in the movie…were often ­astonishing. Photographs from rovers and satellites, radar images and ­computer-generated ­graphics were combined to give the audience the impression of circling individual planets and sometimes ­flying over their awesomely barren landscapes.” —The New York Times

5. The Philadelphia Orchestra
You can learn more about the orchestral innovations of Philly Orchestra’s performance of The Rite of Spring in another recent blog post>>

Take-Aways

Finding common ground with so many members of your community is exciting in itself and I think these concerts provide a forum that makes this possible.  It’s not just music, it’s a concert experience...a shared concert experience that becomes a story that audiences want to share with their family and friends. Concerts that stimulate both the visual and audio senses, at least in my opinion, seem stickier.

With innovative partnerships, dynamic multimedia, and exciting, multi-sensory audience experiences such as these, I encourage symphony orchestras to continue thinking outside of the traditional performance, to push their creative boundaries, and connect with their audiences in a variety of ways that are relevant and interesting to them.  You have to know your audience, which takes time and stems from the development of strong relationships.  With audio-visual performances to facilitate social interaction and find common ground among enthusiastic and innovative arts organizations, I think symphony orchestras and other cultural arts groups have a lot to look forward to in the evolution of technology.

Have you participated in a multi-media concert experience? What are your thoughts?

The Houston Symphony performed at Carnegie Hall on Thursday, led by Hans Graf and featuring images of our solar system. NY Times – Music Review.

And the Oscar Goes to…Arts Education (ARTSReBlog)

Based on original post by Kristen Engebretsen on Feb. 26, 2013

First Lady Michelle Obama presented the nominees for Best Picture and announced “Argo” as the winning film via satellite.

The big winner at Sunday night’s Academy Awards was arts education. In two key moments, a spotlight was shone on the important role the arts play in children’s lives.

At the end of the broadcast, there was the wonderful statement of support by First Lady Michelle Obama. She said, “They are especially important for young people. Every day they engage in the arts, they learn to open their imaginations and dream just a little bigger and to strive every day to reach those dreams.”

But before the First Lady’s surprise appearance, there was another big moment for arts education during the Best Documentary Short category. The winning film,Inocente, is the story of a 15-year-old girl who refuses to let her dream of becoming an artist be stifled by her life as an undocumented immigrant forced to live homeless for the last nine years.

Inocente was introduced to the arts through a program in San Diego called ARTS | A Reason To Survive, which uses therapeutic arts programming, arts education, and college & career preparation to create pathways to success for youth facing adversity. Founder Matt D’Arrigo is a member of Americans for the Arts and we featured his programs in the Dec. 2012 edition of the Monthly Wire.

The following video from San Diego’s ABC affiliate shows the arc of events for Inocente—starting homeless, then participating in ARTS’ programs, all the way up to production of the documentary and standing onstage at the Oscars after Americans for the Arts Artists Committee member Kerry Washington revealed her story as the winning documentary:

(Editor’s Note: Because it is a Flash video, it may not play properly in your browser. To view it on their site visit bit.ly/artseddoc).

Kudos to filmmakers Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine for the incredible job they did conveying the power of the arts to build resiliency and transform lives.

Thanks to Matt and his team for providing these essential arts programs to youth in San Diego and for sharing this success story with the rest of us!

Oscar Host and Music Man Made Entertainment History at 24

Among the many descriptors of Millennials – America’s newest generation, the teens and twenty-somethings coming into adulthood – this generation is known to be confident, connected, and open to change. Oscar Host and member of Gen x Seth MacFarlane helped set the stage for the empowered Millennial generation, making entertainment history at the young age of 24.

I turn to the following ABC news article to shed light on a this young, “Music is Better Than Words” kind of guy.

Selections from:

Oscar Host Seth MacFarlane: 7 Things to Know
By Luchina Fisher – Feb. 22, 2013

‘Family Guy’ Creator Seth MacFarlane Will Host Sunday’s Academy Awards

Bob D’Amico/ABC

(ABC has) made a list of seven things you should know about Seth MacFarlane ahead of Sunday’s Academy Awards…

1. He’s a Prodigy

“I was a combination of reclusive and obsessed with what I wanted to do,” MacFarlane told Walters after being chosen as one of her “10 Most Fascinating People” of 2012. “When I was 2, I was sitting in front of the TV set drawing Fred Flintstone and Woody Woodpecker.” Raised in Kent, Conn., the son of ex-hippies-turned-teachers, MacFarlane started doing a comic strip for his local paper at age 9. In seventh grade, he made his first animated cartoon, “Space Pirates” — “It was terrible,” he said. Later, at the Rhode Island School of Design, he performed in student films and made some of his own, including the animated “The Life of Larry,” which became the seed for “Family Guy.”

2. He Made History

At age 24, MacFarlane made history as the youngest person to ever head a network show as the mastermind of “Family Guy.” MacFarlane produces, writes and even oversees the music for the show. He also voices four of the characters, including 11-month-old Stewie Griffin, his blue-collar dad Peter Griffin and their dog Brian. The show is equal parts juvenile, profane and warm-hearted, tackling everything from bestiality to flatulence. MacFarlane told Walters the trick to getting his material past the censors is to not offend too many groups in any one episode. “It all can’t be in the same place,” he said. “There’s something called tonnage. We try to keep those jokes spread apart. It is a balance. But my view is, if it makes you laugh, it’s an honest laugh.”

3. He Narrowly Escaped Death on 9/11

MacFarlane had been scheduled to fly on the doomed American Airlines flight from Boston that was hijacked by terrorists and deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Instead, he arrived late at the airport — after partying hard the night before and getting the departure time wrong — and missed the flight. “I was generally late for flights,” MacFarlane told Piers Morgan in 2011. “In that moment, we’re all the same. I’m not a fatalist. I was not shaken to the core.” Ironically, MacFarlane’s “Ted” co-star Mark Wahlberg had also been scheduled for Flight 11 but canceled his ticket at the last minute.

4. He’s a (Frugal) Millionaire

MacFarlane is said to be worth $30 million, and the “Family Guy” franchise, which includes “The Cleveland Show” and “American Dad,” is valued over $2 billion, but the comedian says he does not make a lot of “frivolous purchases.” “The only thing in the past 10 years that could be considered extravagant is I bought a time share in a plane,” he told Walters. “It’s nice to be able to avoid the airports, but that’s about it.” Asked why he didn’t buy the entire plane, he quipped, “Oh Lord no, I’m not Bill Gates.”

5. His First Film Was a Smash

MacFarlane only recently joined the ranks of Hollywood, when he wrote and directed his first film. “Ted,” released last summer with Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis — and MacFarlane as the voice of the profane teddy bear, Ted — is the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time. In addition to hosting Sunday, MacFarlane has a chance at winning an Oscar. He received a nomination for the movie’s theme song, which he co-wrote and Norah Jones sings in the film. Jones is also scheduled to perform for Sunday’s telecast. He told “GMA” that he was “genuinely excited” about the nomination, but added, “I know we’re going to lose to Adele … .”

6. He’s a Song and (Not Quite) Dance Man

You’ve probably figured out by now that MacFarlane is a musical man. In September 2011, he released an album of American standards called “Music is Better Than Words.” So, yes, he’s planning to sing at the Oscars. “You’ve got a 60-piece orchestra there. It’s just too big a temptation not to use,” he told Walters. And though he’s admitted he’s no dancer, you can expect to see him bust a move. The show’s producers announced Thursday that MacFarlane and Kristin Chenoweth will close the show Sunday with a musical performance. “We think it will be a ‘can’t miss’ moment,” the show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron said in a statement.

7. He’s Not Afraid of Little Controversy

The big question is how far will MacFarlane go? Will he go as far as Ricky Gervais at the 2011 Golden Globes? MacFarlane has already shown he’s not afraid of a little controversy. During Emmy voting in 2012, his mailer to voters for “Family Guy” included the phrase “Come on, you bloated, over-privileged Brentwood Jews. Let us into your little club.” As expected, controversy erupted, with MacFarlane telling E! News, “Hollywood is a town of very well-to-do folks who live very comfortably. They have a very comfortable lifestyle, they do what they love, there’s not much that is bad in their life. So they should be able to laugh at themselves. If they can’t, it’s a rather sad thing.” Let’s see if he makes them laugh (tonight).

Yannick Nézet-Séguin: Lovingly Nicknamed The “Mighty Mouse” of the Orchestra World

“In a first-of-its-kind partnership with Philadelphia Live Arts, The Philadelphia Orchestra collaborates with the New York-based Ridge Theater Company to present a 21st-century treatment of The Rite of Spring with dancers, video projection, and theatrical lighting.”

Orchestral innovations – Gallery
Thurs., Feb. 21, 2013 (www.philly.com)

The Philadelphia Orchestra is in rehearsals for “The Rite of Spring” with the cutting-edge Ridge Theater Company of New York at Verizon Hall. The presentation will include aerialists, multiple scrims for video opportunities, and onstage dancers. (Katherine Blodgett)

Yannick Nézet-Séguin announced his second Philadelphia Orchestra season Wednesday in a climate of acclaim so intense that a less sturdy musician might be braced for the cyclical backlash that the likes of Lang Lang and Gustavo Dudamel have experienced before him. But he says he’s just happy word is circulating that the Philadelphia Orchestra is back.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin announced his second Philadelphia Orchestra season Wednesday.

*     *     *
His energy, plus a diminutive but muscular physique, prompted mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato to dub him “Mighty Mouse” in a New York Times profile.

Until then, the Montreal-born conductor knew nothing about the American cartoon character. “Joyce wrote me a message immediately and said ‘Oh God! I’m so embarrassed!’ I went online, saw what Mighty Mouse was, and thought, ‘Why not?’ I find this cute and funny.”

He also didn’t know that Mighty Mouse’s catchphrase – “Here I come to save the day!” – was so appropriate to his Philadelphia Orchestra tenure. But he does now.

Read more>> Orchestral innovations

Getting Engaged This New Year?: Try Google+

If you’re planning to get engaged in the New Year, consider Google+…for business, that is.  Businesses who wish to commit to long-term relationships with their fans should consider the newest upgrades to this increasingly popular social media platform.

Earlier this month, Google+ surpassed 500 million users. On Friday (Dec 28, 2012), HubSpot‘s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog highlighted the platform’s newest features.

Google+ is changing for the better, with The Next Web reporting that Google+ Business Pages now have the ability to interact with all Google+ users, regardless of whether users have added the business page to one of their Circles.  Furthermore, Google has also indicated that a new Google+ analytics platform is on its way, slated to be launched ‘in the coming weeks.’

What does this mean for social media marketers?  Google+ now enables even greater opportunities to increase engagement with business pages and across the web.

Google+ Business Pages will now have the ability to interact and engage with any and all Google+ users, opening up more engagement opportunities for marketers, and possibly increasing the chances that users will add businesses pages to their Circles.

Coming soon:

What will the new Google+ analytics platform offer?  Measuring your business’s social influence on Google+ will include several useful features, allowing you to identify influencers, create social reports, and listen to your fans.

Google+ Ripples will provide a visual guide enabling businesses to trace and learn from online interactions with their page.  Businesses can develop a better understanding of their social ROI — how Google+ influences your social impact online — with standard and custom social reports.  Information about who the users are and how they are interacting with your page, as well as their demographics and social activities (+1’s, shares, and comments) will be made available.

Coupled with their closed-loop marketing analytics, marketers should have much greater insight into how effective their Google+ efforts are, and be able to drill down into the individual types of content and updates that resonate (and what doesn’t) with their Google+ audiences.

Nonprofit arts organizations can benefit from this type of online interaction and social impact measurement as well.  Increased engagement via Google+ has the potential to foster relationships with and build greater rapport among current and new arts patrons.  Audiences all over the world can begin to learn and interact with your organization, ideally becoming some of your greatest advocates among their families and friends.

The full effect of Google+ and its online engagement features are not yet fully realized or understood, but the possibilities are certainly exciting.  Give your audiences a backstage pass to engaging arts activities in the performance hall and online.  Get creative.  Get engaged!

*  *  *

If you have any ideas or experiences with Google+ for the arts or business in general, I would love to hear from you!  Please share your thoughts below.

You can also find me on Google+>>

Top 20 in Social Media: Google+ takes the bronze (can be effective promo tool for nonprofit arts – here’s how)

SilverPop – a digital marketing technology provider – decided to research trends in social media growth among the top 20 social networking sites.  The usual suspects topped the list: Facebook takes the gold with a mere 1 billion users and Twitter comes in second with 500 million registered users.  Another somewhat unexpected player has joined them on the winners podium, however.  Coming in third, Google+ gets the bronze.

On Nov 27, 2012, SilverPop announced their findings (data as of Nov. 15, 2012), using a nifty infographic to illustrate the rapidly evolving social networking landscape.  Participants were ranked, in most cases, by total registered users and then grouped into 5 different clubs according to growth patterns.

At the top, social media celebrities Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ mingle in The 100 Million User Club; the increasingly popular location-based, photo-sharing, and microblogging platforms, Foursquare, Instagram, and Tumblr, shine among The Rising Stars; from XING (never heard of it), to Yelp, and LinkedIn, let’s not forget to acknowledge The Steady Freddies, showing steady growth over the past 3 to 5 years;  The Child Prodigies of social media, Pinterest, Soundcloud, and Path, have achieved a meteoric rise to fame despite their young age (between 2 and 4 years old); Friendster, MySpace, and Orkut, which were launched in 2002, 2003, and 2004 respectively, have taken a seat in the Cooling Off club in regards to popularity.

By mid-September of this year, Google+ reached 400 Million users.  Less than three months later, Google+ now has more than 500 million members, which is on par with Twitter in SilverPop’s 100 Million User Club.

*  *  *

Despite initial skepticism, Google+ has grown from 40M users in Oct 2011 to 500M users as of Dec 2012.  Google+ is definitely on the rise and I would like to share my ideas with you for using this growing platform as an effective promotional tool for nonprofit organizations (particularly the arts)!

In recent news, Google+ has also launched Google Communities, encouraging groups to gather around common interests, connect using Google Hangouts and the Google+ mobile app, and explore current or new passions with your communities.

As an emerging arts leader, I am excited at the prospect of using Google+ Hangouts and Google Communities to connect with symphony orchestra and other performing arts enthusiasts.  I think Google+ will prove to be an innovative and effective tool for building relationships with current and future audiences, donors, administrators, board members, volunteers, etc.

Will you join the club?

Millennial Donors: The NextGen Impact on Charitable Giving (TweetChat!)

In-Person Discussion and Live Twitter Chat
Wednesday, October 24 at 5:40 PM Eastern
Twitter Handle: @CStarek
Hashtag: #MillennialDonorsAU

Join me in a virtual discussion of Millennial Donors:

• Millennial Generation: Definition and Characteristics
• Current impact on nonprofits and the arts
• Future impact on charitable giving
• Arts’ advantage: Strategies for incorporating Next Gen donors

Want to join? (added Oct 24)
For TONIGHT’S discussion (3 easy steps):
1. Sign into Twitter and join the chat forum via TweetChat
2. Enter Twitter hashtag #MillennialDonorsAU
3. Tweet away!!!

http://tweetchat.com/room/MillennialDonorsAU

Inside The Smithsonian Associates

Let Me Introduce You to My Associates… 

Catherine Starek

Catherine Starek is serving as an intern with the Smithsonian Associates this fall, she writes about her experience so far here…

Working as the E-Marketing Intern for The Smithsonian Associates (TSA) has been a challenging and rewarding experience.  It is our job in the E-Marketing department to promote all that TSA has to offer and facilitate sales in support of the mission.  We work to foster greater awareness of individual programs, reinforce the Smithsonian brand, and establish trust and excitement among new and loyal patrons.

To this end, I have had to learn how to effectively navigate and use the web-based program known as WordFly, an integrative “digital communication platform,”  to create and launch TSA email campaigns.  I have also been involved in various viral (social media) and guerrilla (reaching outside the database) marketing efforts.  From email campaigns, to tracking sales, and customer retention efforts, I feel that I am making a difference and learning valuable skills.

Between my experiences in E-Marketing at TSA, in the Roundtable Discussion with Mark Babbitt through Smithsonian OFI, informational interviews, and other internal events, my internship has given me the opportunity to learn, expand my awareness and understanding of best practices in the field, as well as enhance my practical, professional, and personal skills within arts management.  My TSA internship has helped me to further clarify my interests and strengths and provide guidance towards my future career.

My BIG Smithsonian Adventure – Seriously Amazing!

I can’t believe I have been at the Smithsonian for 6 weeks already!  I have learned so much and still have a lot yet to discover.  The hardest part is not having enough time (between my graduate school assignments, research, work, and internship) to take advantage of all the wonderful programs and activities they have to offer!

The Smithsonian Associates – a division of the Smithsonian Institution – offers more than 750 programs every year.  That’s a lot.

Their programs cover a wide variety of topics:

• Performing arts
• Archeology
• Art & architecture
• Authors, books, and writing
• Biography
• Civil War
• Culinary arts
• American history
• World history
• International culture
• News, politics, and media
• Philosophy and religion
• Popular culture
• Science and nature
• Travel

…and in variety of formats:

• Children & family
• Courses
• Discovery Theater
• Film screenings
• Lectures & Seminars
• Local Tours
• Members Only
• Mingles at the Museum
• Performances
• Studio Arts
• Digital Media
• Drawing
• Fiber Arts
• Painting
• Photography
• Other media

My job as the E-Marketing Intern is to assist the staff with their Web/E-Marketing efforts to inform, excite, and encourage audiences to explore and participate in the wealth of cultural and educational programs provided by The Smithsonian Associates.

Understandably, the Smithsonian Institution as a whole is even bigger in size!  Did you know that the Smithsonian is composed of not one, but 19 different museums, plus 9 research centers, and the National Zoo?

SI Museums:

• Smithsonian Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
• Smithsonian American Art Museum – Renwick Gallery
• Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NYC)
• American Indian Museum Heye Center
• Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture
• National Museum of American History
• Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
• Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
• Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (NYC)
• Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (DC)
• Smithsonian’s National Museums of Asian Art – Freer & Sackler Galleries
• Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery
• Smithsonian Postal Museum
• Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum
• Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art
• Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
• Arts and Industries Building
• Smithsonian Institution Building, The Castle

My experiences and learning opportunities as an intern for the Smithsonian Associates so far have been seriously amazing!