Our next book club: How to succeed at Curtis…. and life

From Anthea Kreston:

Please join us on our next Fortnightly Music Book Club adventure. One that will connect the broad and diverse Slipped Disk audience to great literature as well as give us a chance to engage with leading musicians of our time. The Fortnightly Music Book Club has a rotating, international group of hosts, and covers a wide range of topics.
Our next topic is the Curtis Institute of Music, with guest host Roberto Díaz, President and CEO of Curtis. A violist of international reputation, he maintains the dual life of performer/educator, and has brought about significant changes to Curtis during his tenure, including the new String Quartet Program, Curtis on Tour, a new building which doubled the size of the school’s campus, and the launch of Curtis Summerfest. What makes Curtis so successful? It has been a training ground for the elite in classical music since it’s inception, with a faculty comprised of the „who’s-who“ in classical music. Housed in a collection of historic mansions in downtown Philadelphia, we will be privy to interviews, video and voices from the present and past – a peek behind the curtain. We will be reading from Powerhouse (MacNeice/Bowen) to learn about the unique business structure (focusing on the introduction and Curtis chapter). Memoirs of Gary Graffman – I Really Should be Practing – and Rudolph Serkin – A Life, both former Presidents of Curtis, will give us historical perspective. All books are available on Amazon. Readers can choose which book/s interest them, and submit questions accordingly.
From our guest host, Roberto Díaz:
Hello from Nantucket, where I am in the midst of a week of performances with Curtis on Tour. Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to a book called Powerhouse: Insider Accounts into the World’s Top High-Performance Organizations, co-authored by Brian MacNeice, founder and managing director of Kotinos Partners.
I first met Brian when he came to Curtis in 2013 as part of a research project with his colleagues at Kotinos Partners aimed at uncovering the principles of high performance. They investigated organizations across many industries – business, sports, technology, finance, education, and the arts—to find out what they all had in common. Following this global survey, Curtis was one of only two cultural organizations in the world to be selected for inclusion in Powerhouse, and the only US educational institution. The school is profiled alongside 11 other top-performing organizations like the Mayo Clinic, New Zealand All Blacks Rugby Team, U.S. Marine Corps, Finnish State School System, St. Louis Cardinals, and others.
As you read this book, you’ll learn more about the special ingredients that contribute to Curtis’s success, and how the same universal principles can be used to spark high performance in any situation – musical or otherwise. I hope you enjoy this exploration and I look forward to answering your questions in the weeks ahead.
From our curator, Anthea Kreston:
Every other Sunday, look for a posting about the Fortnightly Music Book Club. We will hear from Mr. Diaz in 2 weeks. Please submit questions and propose future book titles in the comments section or here: Fortnightlymusicbookclub@gmail.com
See you in a Fortnight!