Who says 92nd Street Y needs more diversity?
NewsDoes it really?
Press release:
The 92nd Street Y announced today that Amy Lam, most recently the Artistic Director of Boston’s prestigious, 80-year old Celebrity Series, will join the organization in November to lead the music programming at 92Y’s Tisch Center for the Arts as Vice President, overseeing the institution’s world-class classical, jazz, and American Songbook concert series.
Lam’s Charge will be to Expand Audiences Online and In-Person for 92Y’s Classical Music Home, Diversifying Represented Genres, Showcasing Diverse Excellence Across the Musical Experience and Reaching a Broader Range of Music Lovers.
Oh, joy.
Some of us look for quality and don’t give a damn about anything else. We listen to, say, Yo Yo Ma because we like his artistry, not in order to meet our Asian quota; we enjoy, say, Zefirelli’s productions not in order to meet our gay quota, because they look gorgeous and he understood the music and the drama.
Amy is one of the most knowledgeable, thoughtful, intentional programming minds, with demonstrated ability to walk the tightrope between genuine exploration and box office appeal in a major market. She is leaving one of the most respected organizations in North America and I expect will prove to be an excellent fit in her new environment. Mazel Tov to all!
Well, honey, good luck with that one….
The only people excited about seeing the word “diversity” used are those who are begging the whole mob to leave them alone.
The rest of us continue to roll our eyes at every D, E, and I mention. Keep on doing what makes the least amount of folks happy – I’m sure it will all work itself out in the nu-perfect America that is coming.
Well, who could possibly object to “Showcasing Diverse Excellence Across the Musical Experience”?
Take heart: this house of cards will collapse and we will perforce get back to basics.
The very existence of the 92 Street Y is based on America’s embrace of diversity.
It’s the Y’s audiences that need diversity!
Exactly. It is not a classical concert hall — it embraces all manner of stimulating artistic and intellectual activity. Christopher Hitchens was on his way there to speak about something or other when he discovered he had cancer.
A young friend of mine from upstate NY got an apartment right across from there after graduating from Yale. She could not believe her luck. Her father and I , who were friends from travels and coincident work practices, could barely contain our envy.
Right: Young Men’s Christian Association.
I see two exclusionary terms right in the title of the organization’s name at the time of the 92nd Street Y’s founding. At that’s just for starters.
Nothing to do with YMCA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/92nd_Street_Y
Thanks Petros. Some basic fact-checking from the top could have considerably curtailed this thread.
Actually, Young Men’s Hebrew Association. Check the history. Does it say something about the USA’s ’embracing of ediversity’ that Jewish immigrants in the nineteenth century felt the need to found such organisations?
Uh…the full name of the place is 92nd Street Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association. So you’re just a little off base.
The full name is “92nd Street Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association”. It is not part of the YMCA.
Excellent choice!
Very impressive: In the press release in just one sentence they used “expand”, diversifying”, “diverse” and “broader”. But they still get no virtue signaling points, they forgot “inclusive” Back to the drawing board.
92nd Y has always been about diversity and inclusion. This is a smart hire and totally in keeping with their mission as it has always been. In other words it shouldn’t be shocking to anyone who has even the faintest clue about what the Y is. But of course, let the SD pile-up begin anyway.
So much condescension (including from Mr. Lebrecht himself) towards a music programmer whose stated goal is “showcasing diverse excellence across the musical experience and reaching a broader range of music lovers.”
I’d seriously recommend any musician who looks down “reaching a broader variety of music lovers” to do some serious thinking about what music means to us and why we spend our lives on it.
When we diversify the repertoire played in concert halls, we create the opportunity to expand our audience and keep the music we love alive. We also create the opportunity for ourselves, as musicians, to experience and fall in love with music we might never have heard before.
Nothing makes me more sad than snide condescension in the face of an honest effort to connect more people to the thing we all love so much.
Amy Lam did not get this job for any reason other than that she is totally qualified.