Speaker 1: Welcome to PM Mood then No Talking Points, No Bullshit
Speaker 1: podcast that takes you behind the curtain, off the red carpet,
Speaker 1: and to the front lines of progress with change makers
Speaker 1: and innovators that are doing the work to shift our
Speaker 1: culture and expand their social impact. I am so excited
Speaker 1: to welcome to PM Mood. Roderick Cox, who is one
Speaker 1: of the only African American conductors in the world who
Speaker 1: made you made your debut conducting the New York Philharmonic
Speaker 1: in March. There's a story to that. So now, so
Speaker 1: now because I want to because I want to jump
Speaker 1: right in, because I've been excited to talk to you,
Speaker 1: and we're, you know, in the age of the coronavirus,
Speaker 1: in a global pandemic. We can't escape it. So it
Speaker 1: becomes a part of every conversation that we've been having
Speaker 1: on PM Mood. So tell us what happened. It was
Speaker 1: the week of I think it was around it was
Speaker 1: March eleventh or something of the sort, and I had
Speaker 1: just come back from conducting in Mannheim, Germany, and some
Speaker 1: of the restrictions for coming into place there because Monday night,
Speaker 1: the first performance we had, the performance was delayed because
Speaker 1: the government just sent out orders that no more than
Speaker 1: a thousand people can be in the audience, like just
Speaker 1: like that, And so we're having to count people and
Speaker 1: let people in specifically and turn people away. But still
Speaker 1: so Europe or starting to take aggressive measures before the
Speaker 1: United States. And the next week was my New York
Speaker 1: Philharmonic debut. It's obviously it's like on the pinnacle moments
Speaker 1: of a young conductor's career is to stand in the
Speaker 1: America's oldest orchestra and one of the biggest chers to
Speaker 1: lead it for the first time. And we have been
Speaker 1: working on this project or it seemed like over a year,
Speaker 1: and I was set to leave for New York on
Speaker 1: that Saturday. I remember going to bed, arriving back from
Speaker 1: Monheim in Berlin on Wednesday, and going to bed, waking
Speaker 1: up on Thursday morning just from seeing a bunch of
Speaker 1: texts from friends. Have you heard the US travel band?
Speaker 1: The President said? This was before I knew everything about
Speaker 1: can Americans get in can American style? And I gotta
Speaker 1: also saw a message from the New York Philharmonic. They
Speaker 1: were obviously sleep asleep by the time I read it,
Speaker 1: but said, can you get on a plane tomorrow? And
Speaker 1: I was trying to figure out does that tomorrow mean
Speaker 1: my today right now, or does that mean Friday. So
Speaker 1: I'm scrambling with my management in London, all of us
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what do they mean? And we
Speaker 1: realized they meant, let's try to get you out of
Speaker 1: Europe today. So I immediately packed my bags and scrambled
Speaker 1: and went to the airport. I was on the next
Speaker 1: flight from Berlin to New York and midair, midair, I
Speaker 1: got the news that the Metropolitan Opera canceled, and then
Speaker 1: next Carnegie Hall cancels, and those huge pillars in New
Speaker 1: York cultural scenes if they're canceling. There was only a
Speaker 1: little a matter of time before the New York Filmonic cancels,
Speaker 1: and so like an hour later Near Harmonic cancels all events.
Speaker 1: And so I'm about five hours from JFK. Berlin's on
Speaker 1: the is in the backdrop and New York this way.
Speaker 1: And so I arrived in New York. I had the
Speaker 1: option for staying a little bit longer, but I decided
Speaker 1: to stay two days. Yeah, because I realized it just
Speaker 1: felt like the US felt like this ticking time mom
Speaker 1: in the sense of during the nation's biggest city. There
Speaker 1: is no testing available, people are still going throughout their lives.
Speaker 1: And I was coming from Europe and seeing how serious
Speaker 1: this is and how serious it's going to get. I
Speaker 1: said to myself, I didn't feel comfortable stay, not just
Speaker 1: in New York, but in the US in the sense
Speaker 1: of it just felt with the lack of information coming
Speaker 1: from all different parts, that it was going to get worse.
Speaker 1: And so I just left two days later and went
Speaker 1: back to Europe, and actually I had very little problems traveling.
Speaker 1: Then I noticed on the news lines very very long
Speaker 1: from Americans trying to get back into America and people
Speaker 1: shuffling around, and so I was actually thankful that I
Speaker 1: made a pretty decisive decision to just get back home
Speaker 1: while I could, because then, as you know, a week later,
Speaker 1: countries started shedding down their course. So I didn't want
Speaker 1: to be stuck anywhere but home. So I'm that is
Speaker 1: just so sad, you know, I can't imagine. It was
Speaker 1: kind of in the same news as they were announcing
Speaker 1: finally the shutdown of the Olympics, and thinking about the
Speaker 1: amount of training, the amount of preparation that you've put
Speaker 1: into this historic moment for it not to then transpire.
Speaker 1: You know, what I think is really uplifting. What I
Speaker 1: find really uplifting in this moment is how music has
Speaker 1: been playing such an incredible role in connecting people and
Speaker 1: to giving them some type of hopefulness. Can you talk
Speaker 1: about that in the way that you know, musicians and
Speaker 1: artists in the midst of this pandemic leaning on their
Speaker 1: craft as a way to help, you know, usher people
Speaker 1: towards some type of light. Lots of music has this
Speaker 1: very hum and element of renewal and struggle and coming
Speaker 1: from something dark to something bright and light, and that
Speaker 1: has been a consistent theme from really the Romantic period,
Speaker 1: this sense of rebounding or fighting for something greater. And
Speaker 1: so it's wonderful that music can play those roles in
Speaker 1: our everyday lives and in our culture. It is that
Speaker 1: ultimate release for us, and that's why it's so important
Speaker 1: for it to be in our lives and our culture.
Speaker 1: And I hope that at this time our government and
Speaker 1: the people realize how important it is to maintain the
Speaker 1: artistic and cultural fabric of our society because they can
Speaker 1: go away just like this, and they have gone away,
Speaker 1: and I worry for many organizations, arts organizations that might
Speaker 1: not be able to really survive this, and musicians have
Speaker 1: been laid off all around the Orchestras can't or opera
Speaker 1: houses can't afford to pay their musicians, but the music
Speaker 1: still lives within us. It's been very interesting as an
Speaker 1: artist being on the other side, as a person who's
Speaker 1: giving the music not being involved with it, because you
Speaker 1: feel like something is sort of ripped from you. You're
Speaker 1: trying to figure out when's the next time you'll be
Speaker 1: able to express yourself and express your art and share
Speaker 1: it with others. Just some of those sensations of the
Speaker 1: electricity of having a live audience there to be a
Speaker 1: part of a performance with you, and really putting together
Speaker 1: a performance with your colleagues, it's just an absolute joy.
Speaker 1: And so it's been tough, but it's also been a
Speaker 1: time of reflection to think about music's role in my
Speaker 1: life and how I can approve upon it, and it
Speaker 1: makes me even more excited to get back to it
Speaker 1: one day and to really also realize that it's a
Speaker 1: true blessing. But yes, even though with their Philharmonic did
Speaker 1: not go forward, I'm also just grateful for my safety
Speaker 1: and health and I know that I still live in
Speaker 1: this privilege in my life that you know, I get
Speaker 1: to wake up in the morning and study music and
Speaker 1: present that to people. And there are people who are
Speaker 1: actually who've lost everything in this and their jobs and
Speaker 1: worrying about how they can feed their families and make
Speaker 1: ins meet. And I try to remind myself and especially
Speaker 1: others who are own social media, really just complaining, complaining
Speaker 1: about being in quarantine during this time, and that there
Speaker 1: are you know, you're you're in quarantine, and you're able
Speaker 1: to be in quarantine in an apartment three bedroom apartment,
Speaker 1: I mean three yeah, And there are certain people in
Speaker 1: societies that two families live in one room. And so
Speaker 1: it's also a great privilege and blessing. I often in
Speaker 1: my work and the different iterations of shows that I do,
Speaker 1: some that are focused specifically around politics and progressive politics,
Speaker 1: and then this one really being about social influence and
Speaker 1: social impact. But you can't escape privilege. You really can't.
Speaker 1: And I think that you know, for me, I think
Speaker 1: that the purpose of recognizing our own privileges in this
Speaker 1: particular moment is also about having gratitude, right you recognize
Speaker 1: that you have this privilege for us to be you know,
Speaker 1: engaged with one another from the safety and the comfort
Speaker 1: of our homes. While there are people that don't have
Speaker 1: a home, right, while there are people who don't have
Speaker 1: the ability to work from home and they must go
Speaker 1: out and make a living in the midst of all
Speaker 1: of this, And just understanding that there is gratitude to
Speaker 1: have in the midst of tragedy, right, and understand your
Speaker 1: good fate and fortune. You know, I want to talk
Speaker 1: a bit because you are originally from Georgia, yes, right,
Speaker 1: And you know I would assume, and maybe I'm wrong,
Speaker 1: but I would have assumed. I would assume that growing
Speaker 1: up you didn't have many other black conductors to look
Speaker 1: at for influence or as a guide and as a
Speaker 1: pathway in your career. How did you get here? How
Speaker 1: did you move from the church and the choir in
Speaker 1: Georgia to the world stage as one of the only
Speaker 1: African American conductors. So wonderful question. I mean, I still
Speaker 1: feel like it presents a problem today because it it's
Speaker 1: always feels like I'm going into unchartered territory. Even if
Speaker 1: you have studied music and you've sort of accumulated a
Speaker 1: certain amount of accolades, it still feels like you're going
Speaker 1: into that rather exclusive room and navigating through that is
Speaker 1: something I think about today, what is possible. There was
Speaker 1: only one black conductor I met when I was younger.
Speaker 1: In his name was James to Priests, and he I
Speaker 1: was studying conducting in graduate school, and he saw one
Speaker 1: of my videos and invited me to New York before
Speaker 1: he died to just give me some helpful advice, and
Speaker 1: that was so very important for me. I think what
Speaker 1: has helped me is to seek inspiration from other examples
Speaker 1: of black excellence. Also outside of music. I seek inspiration
Speaker 1: from watching Serena Williams play tennis, which you know, if
Speaker 1: she can do it, then I can do it. In
Speaker 1: terms of breaking down these barriers, I seek inspiration from
Speaker 1: Barack Obama's presidency and all the curveballs he was thrown
Speaker 1: and still to triumph, and from Misty Copeland as a
Speaker 1: as a dancer. And so I like to feel that
Speaker 1: we as a community, even though it may sometimes feel
Speaker 1: like you're going into uncharted territory or into a room
Speaker 1: that you're alone, that you're never really alone. You have
Speaker 1: a community of people who've done many excellent, great things
Speaker 1: and have been the first that you can seek inspiration from,
Speaker 1: and so I try to be my ankle of that.
Speaker 1: Even though I am in a profession where there are
Speaker 1: very few of us, and I think a number of
Speaker 1: us around the world, we know each other or know
Speaker 1: of each other, and we could probably call I probably
Speaker 1: can't count us all on both hands. It would be
Speaker 1: tough to put together three in terms of counting us
Speaker 1: out there. But yeah, I try to support my colleagues
Speaker 1: where they are and hope and feel like we're all
Speaker 1: in it together. We know that it's not lack of talent,
Speaker 1: it's not lack of grit that keeps African Americans out
Speaker 1: of many exclusive industries, right, it's none of those things.
Speaker 1: How do you use I know that you have an
Speaker 1: initiative where you provide scholarships to underrepresented groups, right to
Speaker 1: inspire young people to connect with musician try classical musician tury.
Speaker 1: How do you inspire them to connect with something where,
Speaker 1: even still now, there are very few reflections of themselves.
Speaker 1: I think, most importantly what you can control and what
Speaker 1: you can't control. You can't control some of these mindsets
Speaker 1: of other people, or you can't control other people icicles.
Speaker 1: But what a musician can do. It's hopefully control, like
Speaker 1: you said, that talent and just nurturing it and growing
Speaker 1: it and stretching your imagination and putting your energy there
Speaker 1: and putting very much positive energy into that and hopefully
Speaker 1: not saying that if you have the talent you will
Speaker 1: make it, but hopefully if you put that energy there
Speaker 1: and become the ultimate professional of your craft, then you
Speaker 1: can hopefully make it and the doors will open onto you.
Speaker 1: This is a profession. You can't, I suppose, yell your
Speaker 1: way into it, and with your frustration, you can't make
Speaker 1: people open doors for you. And I've seen this happen.
Speaker 1: And if you focus on that negative energy, it can
Speaker 1: really I think, hold you back and cripple you and
Speaker 1: push down that talent because I think then people aren't
Speaker 1: focusing so much on your talent, They're focusing on the
Speaker 1: negative energy you're putting out. It's very interesting. The great
Speaker 1: soprano Lanten Price, who was one of the most famous
Speaker 1: black sopranos that ever lived. I mean she's still living.
Speaker 1: I think she's in her nineties there wow in New York.
Speaker 1: But she commanded the stages of the Metropo and Opera
Speaker 1: Moscala in Berlin, all of the world, and was born
Speaker 1: in the twenties and was born in Jackson, Mississippi. And
Speaker 1: for her every interview you listen to her on YouTube,
Speaker 1: she speaks so proudly of her country and so proudly
Speaker 1: of her being an American and the opportunities of being
Speaker 1: an American her country afforded her. And I'm thinking, like,
Speaker 1: you had to go to Europe, you had to conquer Italy,
Speaker 1: you had to conquer Germany, you had to conquer all
Speaker 1: these great opera houses before the United States Metropolitan Opera
Speaker 1: gives you a chance to sing there. Why aren't you
Speaker 1: screaming about that? Why doesn't that frustrate you that you
Speaker 1: had to do that in order to have those opportunities
Speaker 1: in America? And it just baffles me that she's able
Speaker 1: to keep this amazing positive focus and appreciation on being
Speaker 1: an American and what that meant for her. And I said,
Speaker 1: isn't that a wonderful constructive use of your time and energy?
Speaker 1: And so as a musician, especially a musician of color,
Speaker 1: we have to stay focused on the work. Serena Williams
Speaker 1: has to stay focused on the tennis and Barack Obama
Speaker 1: has to stay focused on governing. And that's what I think.
Speaker 1: I try to tell the young people if I can
Speaker 1: help them with in my initiative, if I can help
Speaker 1: them get some of the tools that may keep them back,
Speaker 1: such as a new instrument or instruction from a great teacher, whatnot,
Speaker 1: that helps the talent move forward. And with the talent
Speaker 1: moving forward, hopefully people don't have anything else to say.
Speaker 1: But as you know, we have to be I hate
Speaker 1: to see it, but almost twice as good. I was
Speaker 1: gonna say ten times, but okay, twice as good. We'll
Speaker 1: be it. I was gonna say ten times as good
Speaker 1: as many of the people that you have been naming
Speaker 1: are right, they are the extraordinary pillars of their industries.
Speaker 1: You know. One of the artists whose quote I often
Speaker 1: go back to and I ask other artists in a
Speaker 1: variety of spaces how they feel about it, is Nina Simone.
Speaker 1: And Nina Simone, when you reflecting on an artist's duty,
Speaker 1: said this, you can't help it. And artist's duty, as
Speaker 1: far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times. What
Speaker 1: do you think about that? About that statement in the
Speaker 1: times that we are living in right now, where you're
Speaker 1: speaking about the soprano singer who is born in the
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, the times that she was born in. In
Speaker 1: many ways we can see the journey of how far
Speaker 1: our politics, our culture has come. But in the same respect,
Speaker 1: I'm speaking with you and we're still using in the
Speaker 1: twenty first century phrases like one of the first, right,
Speaker 1: one of the only, and so. On one hand, you
Speaker 1: don't want to live a life that is steeped in
Speaker 1: anger and pain, justifiably so right to the barriers, purposeful
Speaker 1: barriers and obstacles that have been placed in African Americans
Speaker 1: and black people in the diaspora in their way. But
Speaker 1: at the other time, you also want to reflect the
Speaker 1: path and the trajectory. How do you manage to do both?
Speaker 1: Is it possible? Does it change with any given day
Speaker 1: for you? Well, I think one thing that's really fortunate
Speaker 1: about Nina Simone Versusly and Team prices that she was
Speaker 1: a singer songwriter, so her artistry was coming very much
Speaker 1: from her own musical voice in terms of her language,
Speaker 1: her words of sharing and shedding light on that moment
Speaker 1: and shedding light on what was happening in classical music.
Speaker 1: A lot of the times we are as artists mainly vessels,
Speaker 1: vessels for which the composer can shine through. So if
Speaker 1: you are conducting Tchaikovsky symphony or very opera, your job
Speaker 1: is to be this vessel, to bring for that composer's
Speaker 1: vision for its music, for the music, and sometimes if
Speaker 1: we let our personal visions or animal state get in
Speaker 1: the way of that, it's very hard to push that
Speaker 1: message forward. So it is quite the conundrum, a very
Speaker 1: good question. But I do believe certain artists in certain
Speaker 1: other genres are better at shedding light on that. I mean,
Speaker 1: in terms of how hip hop was formed and what
Speaker 1: it grew into before it sort of became what it
Speaker 1: is today, was to kind of shed light on the
Speaker 1: political and social moments of the time. So I think
Speaker 1: giving those two figures Leotine and Nina Simone, I think
Speaker 1: their goals and the visions at that time were different.
Speaker 1: But I always say, you can lead. It's great to
Speaker 1: lead by example. And I know that they're just so
Speaker 1: very few African American conductors in the world on the
Speaker 1: major stage, and there have been people who've tried to
Speaker 1: go there, and somehow we all there's this plateau ing.
Speaker 1: I think, well, I know in the top twenty orchestras
Speaker 1: in America. There are no African American conductors and as
Speaker 1: music directors, and still in today, they've never been an
Speaker 1: African American music director of a major orchestra in our country.
Speaker 1: That's frustrating, and it's something I think about imponderon, and
Speaker 1: obviously I understand that it's a goal I have. One
Speaker 1: of the sad things is that in American society, our
Speaker 1: classical music industry tends to very much look to your
Speaker 1: morsel and in the next couple of years, I think,
Speaker 1: and Maren also steps down from the Baltimore Symphony. She's
Speaker 1: a female American conductor and was the first female conductor
Speaker 1: in the I think around two thousand and nine or
Speaker 1: so to be in charge of a major orchestra in America.
Speaker 1: So still COSCO Music is this very it seems like
Speaker 1: an even much more exclusive club than the government. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: there are these pillars that you just have to really
Speaker 1: work at chopping them down, and so I just feel
Speaker 1: that I just have to stay focused on developing and
Speaker 1: nourishing my talent as an artist and continuing to do
Speaker 1: the work and not have too many distractions and hope
Speaker 1: that it will will work out and hopefully I'll be
Speaker 1: good enough and to take the small successes like a
Speaker 1: debut of the New York Kilharmonic as a great achievement
Speaker 1: as a kid growing up in in Georgia and thinking
Speaker 1: or imagining these things to the point of you're stepping
Speaker 1: on stage with one of those orchestras you've dreamed about.
Speaker 1: Is I think perhaps what Lantine was talking about in
Speaker 1: a way that our country is unfair in many ways,
Speaker 1: and there's a system that's been built over a hundred
Speaker 1: years for the systematic failure of a people, but also
Speaker 1: in this country, it is a country in which you
Speaker 1: can come from here and go there, and even in
Speaker 1: some of the most even in some of the other
Speaker 1: industrialized nations that are great and have many things going
Speaker 1: for them beyond ours, that type of achievement is not
Speaker 1: necessarily in the minds of his people. That you can
Speaker 1: be born outside of a certain class or outside of
Speaker 1: a certain group and still go to such heights. I
Speaker 1: love that, and I think that's a beautiful sentiment and
Speaker 1: also beautiful advice piece of advice to give to young
Speaker 1: people and just people in general. I think that the
Speaker 1: harboring of anger, while for me it can fuel your
Speaker 1: work in some ways, but for others it can very
Speaker 1: much stunt you. And I think that looking at who
Speaker 1: has come before you and how far they have been
Speaker 1: able to grow and to develop in spite of so
Speaker 1: many things, should be used as inspiration. I'm frankly in
Speaker 1: ammunition in a lot of ways. I think it's about
Speaker 1: also channeling that energy, like in James Ballwin's The Fire
Speaker 1: Next Time. Yeah, at the beginning, it just heally hit
Speaker 1: me when he was talking. He said, there's no reason
Speaker 1: for you to try to become like white people, and
Speaker 1: there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that
Speaker 1: they must accept you. The really terrible thing, old buddy,
Speaker 1: is that you must accept them, and I mean that
Speaker 1: very serious. So you must accept them and accept them
Speaker 1: with love. For these innocent people have no other hope.
Speaker 1: They are in effect still trapped in a history which
Speaker 1: they do not understand, and until they understand it, they
Speaker 1: cannot be released from it. And so in the sense
Speaker 1: that it is a society that's built by them, with
Speaker 1: these systems and mechanisms in place, you cannot be burdened
Speaker 1: by a certain anger. You have to accept them and
Speaker 1: work with them. And work on yourself so that you
Speaker 1: can break through those boundaries and not become complacent or
Speaker 1: suffer in the system that was built for you to
Speaker 1: fall down into. And sometimes even them, I hate using them,
Speaker 1: but them, in their privilege, don't realize that that system
Speaker 1: was constructed the way it was, and so I think
Speaker 1: it was even with the Surgeon General said something to
Speaker 1: black people about this that we all know that there's
Speaker 1: some truth to that, but it's also for me upsetting
Speaker 1: because you're not telling the whole story. Now you're feeding
Speaker 1: into You're feeding into a pathology that has been created
Speaker 1: about black people in order to justify paternalistic policies that
Speaker 1: would have us say that we cannot be left to
Speaker 1: our own devices. And his presumption, the Surgeon General and
Speaker 1: his statement was like, well, stop drinking and stop doing
Speaker 1: these bad things, because you're doing these things is causing
Speaker 1: your illness as opposed to a system that was purposely
Speaker 1: created to do you harm. Even being where I am
Speaker 1: right now in the middle of Berlin and a pretty
Speaker 1: nice neighborhood, if I went back home to parts of
Speaker 1: where my family lives in Georgia in making and I
Speaker 1: want to go get a wonderful kill salad. You go
Speaker 1: get it, go to a nice juice shop and get
Speaker 1: a nice fresh juice. I mean, you know, you put
Speaker 1: together their system where you put these people in these
Speaker 1: neighborhoods from decades and decades of discrimination, housing discrimination. Then
Speaker 1: you pack those neighborhoods with with those liquor stores. Yep,
Speaker 1: put them in food desert that there are no grocery stores,
Speaker 1: there is no place to get fresh produced from. And
Speaker 1: you wonder where the underlying conditions came from. They weren't
Speaker 1: created on their own, you know. And that's the whole
Speaker 1: when you say, tell the whole story, right, tell the
Speaker 1: whole truth, don't just pick which parts help amplify this
Speaker 1: agenda that you're trying to sell. Yeah, I think that's
Speaker 1: what bother certain people hearing them, because we have to
Speaker 1: be aware as black people of that system and try
Speaker 1: not to one another so greatly because it takes I
Speaker 1: talked about your ability to go this way in this country,
Speaker 1: but it takes an extraordinary effort from being born in
Speaker 1: the spaces in a place where you're having to fight
Speaker 1: versus your counterpart who's having many opportunities that are enhanced
Speaker 1: them just because of who they are and the color
Speaker 1: of their skin. So all those people who you know
Speaker 1: layoutin price and all those people that got there like
Speaker 1: you said that it took an extraordinary effort and sacrifice
Speaker 1: that is beyond what we would consider a normal human being.
Speaker 1: Absolutely true exceptionalism, true exceptionalism. The last question that I
Speaker 1: always ask folks on PM mood is how do you
Speaker 1: get in the mood to change the world just by
Speaker 1: your presence and your passion industry that still only has
Speaker 1: a handful of African Americans in creating and sharing and
Speaker 1: bringing music to life for you know, tens of thousands,
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of people around the world, how do
Speaker 1: you get yourself in the mood to change the world?
Speaker 1: That is a I tell you that mood changes every
Speaker 1: right now and then, and it's something that has us
Speaker 1: ups and downs, and you and I struggle with but
Speaker 1: I think it all comes from you, and it's about
Speaker 1: your motivation and termation within yourself because you get what
Speaker 1: you give if you in this art form to make
Speaker 1: it to the level you wish, you have to give
Speaker 1: one hundred percent of yourself. And either you're going to
Speaker 1: decide if you're going to do it halfway or all
Speaker 1: the way, and that motivation, that motivation of knowing that
Speaker 1: I do not want to be at a certain place
Speaker 1: in my life or in my career where I have
Speaker 1: what if, What if I would have studied a little harder,
Speaker 1: what if I would have worked a little harder, what
Speaker 1: I have been there? And I may not get to
Speaker 1: where I want to be. But it's a journey, and
Speaker 1: just the pursuit of that it's the most important thing.
Speaker 1: Because I also don't think this is a profession of
Speaker 1: real arrivals. I mean, you should always have this sense
Speaker 1: of wanting to learn, wanting to grow, wanting to stretch yourself.
Speaker 1: But also one of the big inspirations I feel, it's
Speaker 1: like what Leantine Price said was that as an artist
Speaker 1: is as an amazing gift you have and a responsibility
Speaker 1: you have to be able to move people in a
Speaker 1: positive way. And it would be such a travesty if
Speaker 1: you go on stage and neglect that and not give
Speaker 1: it your all, and not give him you're all. Because
Speaker 1: I still truly believe that music is the ultimate door
Speaker 1: opener and music is the ultimate unifier, and through music
Speaker 1: we can come to understand each other. And like music
Speaker 1: in unifying us as a human race and understanding each other.
Speaker 1: Oddly and unfortunately, this pandemic is that as well. It's
Speaker 1: a way of showing that no matter how bigger guns are,
Speaker 1: or how many nuclear weapons you have, or how many
Speaker 1: technological advances you have, we're all human and we're all organisms,
Speaker 1: and we all have no way of fighting this far
Speaker 1: as and so with that we have to realize that
Speaker 1: we must come together and work as one. So I
Speaker 1: think that's my motivation. Thank you Roderick so very much.
Speaker 1: This was extraordinary. I am very hopeful about your return
Speaker 1: to New York and I hope that I will be
Speaker 1: able to be in the audience to see it, because
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be incredible and it will
Speaker 1: mean so much at that time by the time we
Speaker 1: get there, this reopening and this renewal and this rebirth
Speaker 1: for the world. So thank you well, thank you, and
Speaker 1: stay safe. I will I will do my best. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Thanks for listening to this week's PM mood.
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Speaker 1: as always, stay in the PM mood to change the
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