Classical music's enlightened new concert series


My thanks go to Alex Ross for making the connection between my recent post on marketing the spiritual aspect of classical music and the White Light Festival which runs at the Lincoln Center in New York from October 20 to November 19. Here is the positioning statement from the White Light Festival website:
In our technology-driven and distracted world, authentic encounters with one’s interior self and its inherent potential are increasingly infrequent. Throughout human history remarkable works of music and art have helped show us the extraordinary dimensions of human experience and life that lie within all of us—if only we pause in our rush to the finish line and turn our gaze inward. The White Light Festival hopes to provide moments to pause and explore the spaciousness and breath within.
If someone was silly enough to let me direct an arts festival the result would bear a striking resemblance to the White Light Festival. In the mix is Britten's War Requiem and the finale at the Lincoln Center follows the well-trodden path of the whirling Mevlevi Sufis together with Sarband performing their Arabian Passion According to J.S. Bach. One swallow does not make a spring; but it is good to see some influential people in classical music championing enlightenment instead of entertainment.

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