Celebrity Series of Boston - Fall 2021 Newsletter

FALL 2021

Béla Fleck My Bluegrass Heart at Berklee Performance Center

Dear friends, For 83 years, Celebrity Series has focused on bringing the world’s most thrilling touring artists to Boston audiences, providing our community with performances that inspire and delight. After an 18-month hiatus, we are thrilled to finally share the magic of live performance with our audiences again.

Your dedication and continued support have allowed Celebrity Series to return to the halls with renewed excitement and enthusiasm while continuing to make safety our top priority. Audience members have consistently offered their thanks not only for having COVID safety protocols in place, but also for how they have been implemented and communicated. We will all get more used to them as time goes by and, hopefully, we’ll arrive at a time when they aren’t necessary. For those not yet ready to gather indoors, we are continuing to offer an exciting array of digital programs so anyone can experience great performances by Celebrity Series artists.

As we make our return to live performances this Fall, our commitment to amplifying the voices of local artists remains strong.

Through Celebrity Series’ Neighborhood Arts program, we have deepened our relationship with Boston-based artists, bringing their artistry to the world through our Celebrity Series at Home digital concert series, a new jazz series this Fall, an ambitious commissioning project called Solo(s) Together, and a planned expansion of Neighborhood Arts into Cambridge in Spring 2022.

Although we are thrilled to return to the halls, we remain aware of the challenges and uncertainties that lie ahead for us, our artists, and our partners. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that learning new skills, being adaptable, and being bold enough to try new things will be the key to our success.

Thank you for helping to keep us strong and steady. We’re grateful for your commitment to Celebrity Series, and we look forward to welcoming you back to performances this Fall, or whenever you are ready. Be well, take good care, and welcome back.

With gratitude,

Gary Dunning President and Executive Director

AMY LAM’S LEGACY In early October 2021, Artistic Director Amy Lam left Celebrity Series to begin a new role at the 92nd Street Y as Vice President, Tisch Music.

Amy leaves many legacies over her 30 years of dedicated service to Celebrity Series: her supreme artistic taste, her knack for seeking out the world’s most exciting artists and pairing them with world-class Boston venues, and her deft programming of performances that both satisfy and stretch Boston audiences. But in recent years, Amy’s impact has been felt through the expansion of Celebrity Series’ multi-disciplinary, cross-genre programming through projects like Stave Sessions, an experimental series at NEC’s Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theater, and this upcoming season’s Artists for Humanity Jazz Festival. She has also been at the forefront of our growing commitment to diversity represented on Celebrity Series stages.

"It’s been the honor of my lifetime to be able to serve Celebrity Series and our patrons,” Amy said. "I feel incredibly fortunate and am deeply humbled to have served as one of the architects of this great institution and help shape the cultural landscape of the Boston community. When I walked into 20 Park Plaza and a twenty-something executive assistant in 1991, I could never have imagined all that we would accomplish.”

While we manage this transition and search for new artistic leadership, Celebrity Series is excited to announce two guest programmers for the 2022/23 season: • Hanako Yamaguchi will focus on classical music programming. In a 30-year tenure with the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, Hanako was a key leader in establishing the Center’s reputation for trailblazing innovation and transformation of the performance experience.

• Bobby Asher will focus on jazz and contemporary music programming. Bobby has most recently served as director of Duke Performances and was previously Director of Programming for the International Festival of Arts & Ideas and the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

In Fall 2021, Celebrity Series established the Amy Lam Fund for Creative Performance, which will support ongoing initiatives in Amy’s name.

To learn more, email advancement@celebrityseries.org

CELEBRITY SERIES' COMMITMENT TO RACIAL EQUITY Over the past year, Celebrity Series has committed itself to organizational learning and action in the areas of equity, diversity, and inclusion. On September 21, 2021, the Celebrity Series Board of Directors formally adopted a racial equity plan with 17 action steps that the organization will undertake to center this initiative within Celebrity Series’ mission.

Celebrity Series of Boston recognizes that many existing systems of power grant privilege and access unequally, and that equity is crucial to the long-term viability of both the arts and culture sector and communities-at-large. Our Racial Equity Plan describes our commitment to ensure that everyone who wants has equal access to a full, vibrant creative life, which is essential to a healthy and democratic society.

OUR HISTORY As we begin the work of becoming a more inclusive organization that contributes to increased equity in Boston and in cultural and civic life, our desire for positive progress must be informed by our historical context. Despite Boston being the sixth most diverse U.S. city, we live with an ongoing myth that Boston is a white majority city.

We recognize that structural racism is entrenched in our community and in our cultural institutions, including our own predominantly white organization – and that we have benefitted from it. We wrongly operated from an assumption that everyone has access to the performing arts and feels like they belong when doing so. We acknowledge and understand that this is not the case for far too many individuals from marginalized communities.

OUR COMMITMENT We are intentionally shifting to a proactive, equity-centered approach to how we are structured, how we deliver our programs and services, how we engage with the broader community, and how we support our audiences. We seek to become an antiracist community, working against white supremacy, racism, religious intolerance, and discrimination based on gender, sexuality, class, age, and ability. We have chosen to address equity through an explicitly antiracist lens.

Although we are focusing on race explicitly, we are not focusing on it exclusively. We understand that many people hold multiple marginalized identities, and we strive for an intersectional approach.

We invite you to learn more about our commitment to racial equity online at celebrityseries.org/racial-equity

CELEBRITY SERIES: BACK IN PERSON! There’s nothing quite like the energy in the room when audiences gather to experience great art! Hear what some of our audiences had to say about their first time back in the halls:

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“It was a magical evening – perfect for this moment in time.”

“Thanks for ensuring that everyone was vaccinated. Made it much easier to enjoy the excellent show.”

“It was wonderful to attend a live performance again after 18+ months of pandemic shutdown.”

“The enthusiasm of the audience feeding the enthusiasm of the performers was a sight not to be missed.”

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