Value Streams: |
VS4: Introducing Innovation and Creativity to an Organization |
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u Advanced |
Company: |
Hofstra University/The Hofstra String Quartet
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Speaker: |
Benjamin Wolff,
Assistant Professor of Music |
Title: |
The Paradox of Creativity
How a classical string quartet uses a LEAN strategy to get from rehearsal to performance.
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Presentation Abstract: |
The artist sits in his studio, meditating on the act of creation. He waits patiently for the perfect moment. All of a sudden, the muse of inspiration strikes and in a burst of artistic passion he brings forth a fully formed masterpiece for the ages.
Is this really how art is produced? Well, perhaps in movies or Victorian novels. In the real world, however, the making of art and the business of art are actually subject to many of the same pressures, constraints, and opportunities that concern the manufacturing community.
In this audio-rich presentation, let cellist Benjamin Wolff take you “behind the scenes.” Discover the secret life of the string quartet—far removed from the glamour of the concert stage—and learn how creativity in the arts emerges from the Lean application of equal parts of imagination and discipline. |
About the Company: |
The Hofstra String Quartet is the faculty quartet in residence at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. Since 1998 the quartet has directed the string program at Hofstra, mentored young musicians, and performed an acclaimed series of concerts at Hofstra’s Monroe Theater. Additional highlights of past seasons include performances at the Museum of the City of New York, the Huntington Museum of Art, and the recital series at the Brookhaven National Laboratories.
The members of the Hofstra String Quartet—Alexander Sharpe, Matthew Lehmann, Todd Low, and Benjamin Wolff—are also in demand as orchestral, chamber and solo artists. Performing with ensembles such as the Grant Park Symphony, Orchestras of the Voices of Ascension, the American Symphony, Concert Royal, and the Sonos Chamber Orchestra, they appear regularly in concert at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and other concert venues throughout New York City. |
Speaker Biography: |
Benjamin Wolff, Assistant Professor of Music
Benjamin Wolff is Assistant Professor of Music at Hofstra University in New York. He is a cellist and a member of the Hofstra String Quartet ensemble in residence at Hofstra University. In addition to his work as a performing musician, Wolff is deeply committed to broadening the important connections between the worlds of the arts, the sciences, and business.
In 1997 he co-founded the Foothills Chamber Music Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. For nine years, he led the Festival as cellist and co-Artistic Director as it presented a celebrated series of summer performances, lectures, and symposia at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art, and the Southeast Center for Contemporary Art.
He is presently the creator and director of NEXUS: The Open Mind , a concert series that explores the links between music and other spheres of human achievement and knowledge. NEXUS presents unique entry-points for audiences by crafting bridges from their particular experiences and interests to the music being performed.
Benjamin's experience with interdisciplinary learning and thinking has led him to speak on subjects ranging from creativity to teamwork. A recent presentation he delivered at the 18th international conference of the Center for Collaborative Organizations was entitled, "The Art of Teams: Lessons in Self-Direction from the World of the Arts." In June of 2008 he is to present at the AME regional conference in San Diego.
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