Blog

In this role, we constantly reflect on the meaning and relationship between innovation and impact. More specifically, what is the impact of the work that we—twenty-first century artists and ensembles—do on the world around us. In our opinion, impact can be viewed as the greatest gauge or measure of innovation. This focus on impact reminded […]

At the core of the Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and Research is a focus on the 21st Century evolution of the innovative ensemble, with a focus on creative, artist-centered ensembles that reflect new models of artistic innovation, organizational relationships, and operational sustainability. This mission requires us to continually reflect on the meaning, purpose, […]

The Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and Research is a division of the Institute for Music Leadership at the Eastman School of Music. The Center’s research and programming emphasizes the 21st Century evolution of the innovative ensemble, influenced by both the symphony orchestra and the chamber music traditions, with a focus on creative, artist-centered […]

This past December, the music world celebrated the 250th anniversary of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s birth. The year-long celebration of “Beethoven@250” runs the gamut, including multiple high-profile orchestras performing all of the symphonies, numerous stagings of Fidelio, complete performances of the piano sonatas, museum exhibitions, an augmented reality tour of Vienna, and, of course, the hashtag […]

In a March 2019 talk given at Harvard University, Yo-You Ma asserted: It’s Never Art for Art’s sake, because even if I do it for myself in my head, I have an ideal. I’m actually trying to take something — a construct, a concept, a theory — and then I want to make it visible. […]

In recent weeks, an article by Aubrey Bergauer has been circulating on Facebook. Titled “The Orchestra Myth: And What We Can Learn From Nordstrom,” the article highlights the value of nurturing existing audiences in addition to developing new audiences. Bergauer highlights that the challenge for orchestras is not attracting new audiences, but rather retaining audiences […]

In Carol Dweck’s groundbreaking book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” she draws distinctions between two types of mindsets: fixed and growth. With a fixed mindset, we want to be great, receive recognition, be the best, and not try or work at it. With a growth mindset, we don’t feel the need for constant approval […]

Doesn’t it feel like as a musician in the 21st century, you are pulled in a hundred different directions? You’ve got social media posts to attend to, blog posts to write, receipts to file, grant proposals to write, and the list goes on. So, what’s the priority? What is the most important thing? I remember […]

Creativity is all about making connections between seemingly disparate ideas, and developing many possible solutions to a given problem. You may ask, why do we want to boost our creativity? For one, in the non-stop social media and saturating news cycle of the 21st century, employers are looking for people that bring creativity to their […]

The Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and Research is pleased to announce five new projects that have been awarded funding through the PRJC Grant Program. The grant committee received a wealth of excellent proposals for innovative projects and research surrounding the topic of innovative ensembles. Here are the projects that have been awarded funding […]