Programming Highlights

In an all-new episode of The Business Beat, Steve D'Agostino, chief pilot of Best Rate of Climb, interviews Matthias Waschek, director of the Worcester Art Museum. They talk about the intersection of art and business in the new economy.

In November 2011, Waschek arrived at the 116-year-old Worcester Art Museum as its new director, with an international career of 20 years in the art world. He replaced James Welu, who is now director emeritus of the museum as part of a 41-year career there – 25, as director.

As director of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St. Louis, Waschek built that institution’s structure and shaped its identity as both locally anchored by and nationally recognized for its exhibitions and programming. Before moving to the United States, he was head of Academic Programs at the Louvre Museum in Paris. There, he conceived and led lecture series and symposia around collections and exhibitions, to interface between academia, the museum world and the general public.

With a Ph.D. from Bonn University on French Symbolism, Wascheck first published and lectured widely about art and artists of the second half of the 19th century. His field of scholarly work and publications broadened during his tenure at the Louvre, including proceedings of a symposium on artists’ lives, a study on Rubens’ Medici Cycle, and, for broader audiences, “What is a Masterwork?”

As director and curator of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, Waschek created award-winning web-catalogs, notably “Brancusi and Serra in Dialogue,”  “Portrait/Hommage/Embodiment,” and “Ideal (Dis-)Placements: Old Masters at the Pulitzer.” A book on Ann Hamilton’s “stylus” installation, which he curated in 2010, was published at the end of 2012.

Waschek has broad experience in communicating with and about art, as:

• A professor of art history, notably at Parsons Paris – then part of the New School for Social Research in New York City – and the école du Louvre
• A regular guest lecturer at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, the université de La Rochelle, and others
• The initiator of a ground-breaking collaboration with the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, which combined questions of art experience with those of social integration

Each year, the Essentially Ellington festival brings the best high school bands to Rose Hall for three days of competition and camaraderie.  Step behind the stage to experience the anxiety and exhilaration of this three-day festival, and then sit out front for the heat of the band battle.

Radio France describes vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant as "disarmingly musical." In her early twenties, she's already won the Thelonious Monk competition and gained the ear of Wynton Marsalis. On this week's Piano Jazz, Salvant discusses her journey to discover jazz, and host Weber accompanies her on "I Can't Dance" and "A Fine Romance."

The Wall Street Journal calls him “the Hippest Harpist,” playing a 32-string instrument from Colombia (his homeland) and Venezuela. To packed houses, the Music of the Americas series presented Castañeda in three concerts with his trio – saxophonist Shlomi Cohen and drummer/percussionist David Silliman. Guests are vocalist Andrea Tierra, bandoneonist Héctor Del Curto, vibraphonist Joe Locke, flutist Itai Kriss, and cuatro legend Jorge Glem. Imagine the possibilities! We have highlights.

Americas Society’s presentation of the Edmar Castañeda Trio and Friends on JazzSet is supported by Presenting Jazz, a program of Chamber Music America funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

In this edition we will talk with Joe Grafton of the American independent Business Alliance and Julie Theriault of Worcester Local First.

Joe Grafton is director of development and community engagement for the American Independent Business Alliance, also known as AMIBA.

He has dedicated the last decade of his life to shifting culture and paradigms to support sustainable local economies and community-based businesses.

He is the founding executive director and a current board member at Somerville Local First – a leading local-business alliance –  a board member at the Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts, a steering-committee member of the New England Local Economy Network, co-chair of the Pioneer Valley Slow Money Chapter, and director and treasurer for the Together Festival, Boston's version Austin's South By Southwest.

Joe brings skills and experience in fund-raising, speaking, training, marketing, social media, operations and planning to AMIBA.

He focuses on driving resources to the localization movement while engaging and supporting AMIBA leaders.

Julie Theriault is executive director of Worcester Local First.

She has more than 15 years of experience in business management, in the areas of hiring, training, merchandising, inventory and payroll.

From 2002 to 2007, Julie was manager of The Gap stores in Leominster and Montreal.

From 1997 to 2002, she was store director of Birks & Sons in the Montreal area.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm a past coordinator of Worcester Local First.

'La Perfecta' - pianist and composer Eddie Palmieri's first band - aptly describes his perfect mix of driving Afro-Cuban grooves and jazz rhythms.  Palmieri takes the helm with two of his ensembles - the Eddie Palmieri Orchestra and Afro-Caribbean Jazz Octet - in this high-octane retrospective, honoring his half century of music.

Bassist Linda Oh was born in Malaysia to Chinese parents, and moved to Western Australia where she started out playing bass in rock bands. Since discovering the double bass, Oh become a steady presence on the scene whether playing with a string quartet, composing for film, or covering the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Oh brings her unique low end flavor to this set with Jon Weber.

Trombone virtuoso talks about the influence his trombone-playing father Bill Allred had on him growing up and what it takes to be a great player in every setting.

Trumpet man Wayne Bergeron is known for his amazing high notes and studio work, and making everyone else sound great. In Judy’s 2007 discussion with Wayne he revealed what it was like to finally record under his own name and receive a Grammy nomination for his efforts.

“I think I’m the only Chinese/American Big Band Leader in the country,” says George Gee, and a more enthusiastic proponent of this music cannot be found. George discusses keeping this music alive and the great advice he got from his mentor Count Basie.

Author, educator and classical and jazz pianist Stuart Isacoff explains how the openness and improvisation of jazz has affected his writing and other creative endeavors.

Pianist/composer talks about his work for Woody Allen and early TV.