Headliners Making Change

"Project 19"

From Emmy records to exhibitions expanding the boundaries of art as we know it to developing new media companies, this section keeps you up to date on alums making national and international news. 

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President and CEO of The New York Philharmonic Deborah Borda ’71 spoke with The New York Times recently about staging the Philharmonic’s Project 19 in February 2020, which will mark the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment of the United States Constitution. The New York Times wrote, “A key offering will be a newly staged version of Virgil Thomson’s 1947 opera, with libretto by Gertrude Stein, The Mother of Us All, which tells the story of Susan B. Anthony, an early suffragist who died before the amendment giving women the right to vote was ratified. Other historical figures involved with the movement—ranging from Daniel Webster to Lillian Russell—are also portrayed. The production will be jointly presented by the orchestra, Juilliard School, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the museum’s Charles Engelhard Court, in its American wing.” Borda reported that this collaboration is part of a larger effort to attract younger audiences, “who she hopes will find the opera ‘absolutely riveting in terms applicable to today.’” (Photo credit: Jurgen Frank)