In Sunday’s (11/9) MLive.com (Michigan), Susan Isaacs Nisbett writes about an arts internship program at the University of Michigan School of Music, and its link with the San Francisco Symphony. “Last summer, Elizabeth ‘Libby’ Seidner, a University of Michigan senior studying flute and instrumental music education, spent five weeks with the San Francisco Symphony as a University Musical Society/University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance 21st Century Artist Intern. Among the many takeaways from her experience: Innovation is central to both mission and music-making at this extraordinary American orchestra.… Even the more-traditional programs the orchestra brings as it returns for a two-day UMS residency Thursday and Friday (Nov. 13-14) provide evidence of the orchestra’s desire to ‘surprise, delight and reaffirm the audience,’ as Seidner put it.… Previous San Francisco Symphony visits here have had a strong student-involvement component, with master classes and player talks on career issues. But with Seidner’s ‘embedding’ with the SFS this summer, new activities suggested themselves. The U-M’s Third Century Initiative funded four School of Music, Theatre & Dance summer interns in the new 21st Century Internship program. Each participant received a $4,000 living and transportation stipend for six weeks–parity with the amount interns in the sciences might get and a fabulous deal in the arts.”
Posted November 11, 2014
