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Carnegie Hall Weill Music Institute director Sarah Johnson to discuss work on music education, enrichment

Sarah Johnson
Johnson

Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute Director Sarah Johnson will deliver the morning lecture at 10:45 a.m. today in the Amphitheater.

Johnson said she plans to discuss “some of the philosophy that underpins Carnegie Hall’s education and social impact work, several of our programs, and the way we think about and investigate impact.”

Johnson has served as director of Weill Music Institute for more than 17 years and is charged with the oversight of nearly 20 major programs housed within Carnegie Hall’s education initiatives.

For Johnson, the week’s topic of “Exploring the Transformative Power of Music” is a central theme within her talk because of Carnegie Hall’s mission, which “includes the transformative power of music and bringing the transformative power of music to the widest possible audience,” she said.

Johnson said deeming something “transformative” sets a very high bar, and she aims to understand the scenarios that lead to true transformation through music.

“It doesn’t mean the lovely experience around music, but a change in form. When and where does that happen?” she said.

“I’ll talk about examples of when I’ve seen it happen in individual lives, ways in which I’ve seen it happen in relationships and in communities — the very powerful role that music and live performance can play in supporting and nurturing community — and also some of the bigger and broader potential ways in which music can transform,” Johnson said.

She said she will analyze several programmatic examples of work that Carnegie Hall is doing to promote music as a transformative force.

One example is the Lullaby Project, which pairs parents and caregivers with professional artists to write and sing personalized lullabies for their children.

Additionally, Johnson will discuss Musical Connections, a program that partners with Sing Sing Correctional Facility, in which men at the facility work with visiting artists to create and perform music.

Johnson said a large part of her role is to critically examine not just the current role of music in peoples’ lives, but what it could be, too.

“What can music do? What does it do? What is music as an active ingredient in peoples’ lives? What can it do?” Johnson said.

“If you’re responsible for making sure that the ‘transformative power of music’ is being shared with the widest possible audience, then that has to be a question that is very much alive, and that question is very much alive for me,” she said. “It means that the work is always changing and evolving. It’s very dynamic and responsive to what’s happening in the world, and that’s really exciting.”

Johnson said one theme she hopes will emerge is the constant drive to understand what is or is not transformative within Carnegie Hall’s work and why. She said she often asks herself if there are assumptions that could be challenged to reach a deeper understanding or a richer engagement with the world.

She also said she hopes to impart the many ways that music can enrich and support peoples’ lives, particularly in an era in which it is so widely accessible.

“I’m interested in human capacity to pay attention to how we are feeling,” Johnson said, “and to make choices about what we’re listening to that are supportive of our well being and our capacity to feel OK, and to engage with each other in ways that are mutually supportive and civil.”

Tags : Carnegie HallCarnegie Hall’s Weill Music InstituteExploring the Transformative Power of MusicMorning Lecture PreviewSarah JohnsonWeek six
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The author Julia Weber

Julia Weber is a rising senior in Ohio University’s Honors Tutorial College where she is majoring in journalism and minoring in art history. Originally from Athens, Ohio, this is her second summer in Chautauqua and she is excited to cover the visual arts and dance communities at the Institution. She serves as the features editor for Ohio University’s All-Campus Radio Network, a student-run radio station and media hub, and she is a former intern for Pittsburgh Magazine. Outside of her professional life, Julia enjoys attending concerts, making ceramics and spending time with her cat, Griffin.