What Is the Role of the Musician in the Face of Systemic Injustice?

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What Is the Role of the Musician in the Face of Systemic Injustice? – by Paul Katz

I am writing to you from Boston, one of the U.S. hotspots for the coronavirus, and yet another city where large, peaceful protests are rightfully calling for justice following the killing of George Floyd and countless other innocent black people.

Music is a calling that absorbs us, floods our hearts and minds and can remove us from the everyday world and its suffering. But as I look today at a world in chaos, I ask myself, what is the relevance of music, the cello, of culture and the arts in general? What is the role of CelloBello at a time such as this? What can/should we be doing as musicians?

While I have been blessed by a long career, I have been continually questioning, as a classical musician, how to make the world a better place. The answer was not difficult—music consoles, heals, uplifts, enlightens, and helps balance our emotions. Music has the power to unite people. In this increasingly technological and stressful world, what we do has more relevance and purpose than ever. Wars, pandemics, and every imaginable human suffering can be alleviated by music because music fulfills a basic human need. It has a societal function, and we do not need to apologize for what we do.

But there are times when making music is not enough.

There is a long history of idealistic, socially conscious musicians rising to action during their lifetime: Pablo Casals, Paul Robeson, Daniel Barenboim, Toscanini, Huberman, to name a few. These were not only great artists, but humanitarians stirred to action by their moral compass; some joined the waves of protest by performing in solidarity, while others even refused to take the stage in defiance of injustice. Today, the world is again in danger of being overrun by bigotry, fanaticism, and a thirst for power that knows no morality. While this was only one of a string of incidences of needless police brutality, witnessing the death of George Floyd should be a gut-wrench for any human being—no matter whether you are a farmer, a brain surgeon…or a musician.

What is different for musicians today is that we have no live concerts and so our music, in a real sense our strongest weapon, has been partially silenced by the pandemic.

But this should not give us reason to disengage.

CelloBello has always been about musical excellence, and about sharing the traditions and legacy of our art form. It’s also about building a global community, about celebrating the diversity of that community, and about equalizing access to a quality musical education. While this is one of the few non-musical utterances ever to appear on CelloBello, I believe it belongs here as it speaks to the many musicians who are troubled and wondering what, if anything, we can do.

Though this is a time that we as musicians cannot use theaters, parks and public venues, there are so many ways to make a difference. CelloBello applauds those who have taken their instruments and voices to social media. Black Lives Matter. We can each stand up in our own way and at our own comfort level to fix our broken justice system and dismantle the systemic bias in our country’s institutions. Some of us are past the age where we can take part in demonstrations, but there is still much we can do. And I hope younger musicians will join other young people and find safe ways to protest. Walking, talking, writing, speaking up, supporting causes for decency and justice, and VOTING. This is all of our responsibility.

Music comes in infinite forms through all civilizations and cultures, reflecting the rich diversity of humankind. It is a universal language. Let it continue to be a platform for dialogue, and let us musicians continue to serve as agents for positive change in the world.

Boston MA, June 2nd 2020

Paul Katz

By Paul Katz|2023-03-06T14:05:32-05:00June 3rd, 2020|Categories: Artistic Vision, Beyond the Traditional, Interpersonal Relationships|Tags: protests, black lives matter, vote, voting, george floyd, protest|

About the Author: Paul Katz

Paul Katz is known for his 26-year career as cellist of the internationally acclaimed Cleveland Quartet; as a world-renown teacher of his instrument; for his featured role mentoring young cellists in the made for PBS film Talent Has Hunger, directed by Academy Award nominated Director Josh Aronson; and as Founder and Artistic Director of CelloBello.org, the world’s leading online resource center for cellists. As soloist Katz has played throughout North America, Europe and China. Of special interest to cellists is the Cleveland Quartet’s recording of the Schubert Quintet for two cellos with Paul Katz and Yo-Yo Ma.

In 2010, with the support of WGBH in Boston and NEC, Katz created CelloBello.org, “to build a global cello community that serves all cellists and enthusiasts world-wide with the highest level of musical instruction, inspiration and interaction, regardless of location, race, socio-economic status, or ability level”. Katz’s video lessons are in seven languages and interviews, blogs, live cello chats, streamed concerts and masterclasses are contributed by dozens of the world’s greatest artist/teachers.

Mr. Katz has received many honors, including the American String Teacher’s Association “Artist-Teacher of the Year 2003;” Indiana University’s “Chevalier du Violoncelle,” awarded for distinguished achievements and contributions to the world of cello playing and teaching; Chamber Music America’s highest honor, The Richard M. Bogomolny National Service Award, awarded for a lifetime of distinguished service in the field of chamber music; and an Honorary Doctorate of Musical Arts from Albright College. Mr. Katz served for six years as President of Chamber Music America, the national service organization in the United States that has in its membership virtually all of the country’s professional chamber music ensembles, as well as hundreds of presenting organizations, music festivals and managers. As an author, he has appeared in numerous publications and wrote the liner notes for the Cleveland Quartet’s three-volume set of the complete Beethoven Quartets on RCA Red Seal.

Mr. Katz has appeared as soloist in New York, Cleveland, Toronto, Detroit, Los Angeles, and other cities throughout North America. He was a student of Gregor Piatigorsky, Janos Starker, Bernard Greenhouse, Gabor Rejto and Leonard Rose. In 1962 he was selected nationally to play in the historic Pablo Casals Master Class in Berkeley, California and was a prizewinner in the Munich and Geneva Competitions. Of special interest to cellists are his recordings of the Dohnanyi Cello Sonata for ProArte Records and the Cleveland Quartet’s recording on Sony Classical of the Schubert two-cello quintet with Yo-Yo Ma. The Cleveland Quartet has nearly 70 recordings to its credit on RCA Victor, Telarc International, Sony, Philips and ProArte. These recording have earned many distinctions including the all-time best selling chamber music release of Japan, 11 Grammy nominations, Grammy Awards for Best Chamber Music Recording and Best Recorded Contemporary Composition in 1996, and “Best of the Year” awards from Time Magazine and Stereo Review.

In September of 2001, Mr. Katz joined the faculty of The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, following five years at Rice University in Houston and twenty years (1976-1996) of teaching at the Eastman School of Music. He has mentored many of the fine young string quartets on the world’s stages today including the Ariel, Biava, Balourdet, Cavani, Chester, Harlem, Jupiter, Kuss, Lafayette, Maia, Meliora, Omer, Parker, T’ang, Verona and Ying Quartets. One of America’s most sought after cello teachers, his cello students, in addition to membership in many of the above quartets, have achieved international careers with solo CD’s on Decca, EMI, Channel Classics and Sony Classical. They occupy positions in many of the world’s major orchestras including principal chairs of orchestras such as Detroit, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Oslo, Norway and Osaka, Japan, and are members of many American symphony orchestras such as Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, National Symphony, Pittsburgh, Rochester and St. Louis.

Mr. Katz has been a participant at many of the world’s major summer music festivals and schools including the Aspen Festival, Marlboro Festival, Bowdoin Festival, the Yale Summer School of Chamber Music, the Perlman Music Program, Yellow Barn, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany, ProQuartet in France, Domaine Forget, Orford, Toronto Summer Music, and the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada, the Steans Institute of The Ravinia Festival, The Heifetz Institute, and served as Director of the young artists program at the Great Lakes Chamber Festival. His hundreds of master classes worldwide include many of the major music schools of North and South America, Europe, Israel, Japan and China. Mr. Katz frequently sits on the juries of international cello and chamber music competitions, including the Leonard Rose International Cello Competition, the Gyeongnam International Cello Competition in Korea, and the international string quartet competitions of Banff, London, Osaka, Munich, Graz and Geneva.

Paul Katz resides in Boston, MA with his wife, pianist Pei-Shan Lee and plays an Andrea Guarneri cello dated 1669.