Peter Sellars: A Small Flame

Some interesting comments from Peter Sellars in the Jan/Feb 2007 'Symphony' magazine published by the American Symphony Orchestra League.

...the idea that you only read literature to answer one of three questions, and you better pick the one we will tell you is right. And that’s why you’re reading literature? Not to have your own ideas? Not to have your own imagination unleashed? No one ever has come up with your answer. That’s the point of reading literature. That’s the point of listening to music. Not to get the right answer, but to find your answer. You are the human being capable of finding it...

... we need the next generation of citizens who are informed, thoughtful, capable of listening, capable of imagination, capable of a new set of solutions and possibilities, not just following the guidelines that have already been laid down and repeating back what they’re told is right. That’s why Beethoven wrote music, to break those boundaries—and to do it with fury and overwhelming power and overwhelming commitment and some humor. But blazing! Not being polite...

...We stand for the ability to do something that is unpopular and difficult at a moment when it counts...

...If you want to diversify the audience, you have to diversify what’s on stage. You have to find ways of collaborating so that you actually are able to present and honor a whole range of traditions, a whole range of people, because a symphony has to represent who lives here. And that means on stage. That’s where the imagination really has to be engaged...

...may I ask you to build your organization out of the deepest things in your life. What you need is to still be alive 20 years from now to protect these things like a small flame in a terrible wind. If you stand for something, you will stand...