![]() ![]() Why should the president be hosting artists when so many people are without jobs or are facing foreclosure on their homes? No doubt some people might think these performances a waste of time and money. Last year, there was an “Evening of Poetry, Music and the Spoken Word” with the husband-wife writers Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, the spoken-word artist Mayda del Valle and actor James Earl Jones. In the past 20 months, the White House has hosted musical performances by a studiously diverse array of artists: Smokey Robinson, Jennifer Hudson, Joan Baez, John Mellencamp, Natalie Cole, Brad Paisley and Joshua Bell, to name a few. “Some think we may see White House recitals - I know that if I had Yo-Yo Ma on speed dial, I’d be asking for concerts as often as he’d be willing to perform.” “As arts organizations around the country face economic hard times and an uncertain future, it’s reassuring to think we have an engaged, culturally astute patron-in-chief,” I wrote last year. The inaugural ceremony included Aretha Franklin’s gospel take on “My Country ’Tis of Thee” and a new work composed by John Williams that was performed by a classical supergroup that included cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman.Īt the Lincoln Memorial “We Are One” concert, televised the day before the inauguration on HBO, there were performances by Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, will.i.am and Pete Seeger, plus two compositions by Aaron Copland. Last year, when President Barack Obama was inaugurated, hopes were running high across America.įew had more reason to be excited than those of us who view our culture - music, film, theater, books - as central to our national character. ![]()
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