Anticipating the today’s speaker, the full room of Rotarians was in happy and active voice visiting before the meeting. A new (for us) hybrid meeting platform – streaming – was being tested, but sadly, there was no connectivity. We will need to wait another week for streaming to be ready for a test run.
President Mark Foster rang the bell to begin our meeting, and maize-and-blue bow-tie bedecked Tom Strode came to the piano to lead us all in the singing of My Country ’Tis of Thee. Barbara Eichmuller, also in keeping with the day’s musical speaker added a line to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s inspiration for today:
“This is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your life…and music to fill your heart with joy.”
Barbara Eichmuller
Downs Herold led us in a George Cohan tune of Give My Regards to Broadway, to Bill Ives’ rewritten words of Sing Out a Song of Rot’ry with the piano flourishes again by Tom Strode.
Downs Herold
President Mark welcomed members and guests as well thanking today’s meeting set up team: Linda Kentes, Sara Maddock, Leo Shedden, Pat Murphy, Bob Mull, Norm Herbert, Bruce Stone, Joanne Pierson, Jordan Setayesh, Victor Stoeffler, Mary Jean Raab, Mary Steffek Blaske and Fred Beutler. Happy birthday to six special members this week!
Rob Shiff
Rob Shiff reported that the hybrid concept for our meetings is still in test mode. Streaming was delayed as there was no connectivity today. This technology will allow chat amongst the people on the stream but not with members in the in-person meeting. Rob counseled that this was like Ann Arbor road construction: “pain in the short term, but have patience, it will be a much better product.”
Dennis Powers
Dennis Powers, heading up our club’s Rotaractor program this year, invited us to become mentors for the University of Michigan students who are Rotaractors. You will be paired with a student who is looking for career / academic / life advice that intersects with your life’s path. Usually mentor and mentee meet in person once a month over coffee or tea or a meal. There is overwhelming enthusiasm for the program by both Rotary member and Rotaractor. Please watch this 4-minute video created by three of this year’s Rotaractor leaders about the important program. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USurUyA4ZkQ Please contact Mary Steffek Blaske, at foxcroftannarbor@gmail.com or at an upcoming meeting if you would like to be a Rotary mentor.
Powers also invited all members and their friends to hear Tom Strode play the beautiful tracker organ at St. Andrews Church in Ann Arbor. He begins the 2023-24 Organ Recital Series on Sunday, October 1 at 7:00 pm. Strode, Ann Arbor Boychoir founder and former St. Andrew’s Organist/Choirmaster, will perform a program featuring works by Bach, Howells, Parry, and Thalben-Ball. This event is free and open to the public. You can watch it live on St. Andrew’s YouTube channel.
Ed Johnson invited Rotarians and friends to help with the highway clean up on Saturday from 9 – 11:30 a.m. Meet at Kensington Hotel for a safety briefing, pairing up with clean-up buddies, and see what amazing trash you will find! A complimentary lunch follows at 11:30 a.m.
Scott Nelson
Scott Nelson from the Ann Arbor North club brought a beautiful and colorful three-dimensional sculpture of monarch butterflies in flight to celebrate the MOMA (MOther MAriposa) Hope Statue Tour. The statue tour runs from Edmonton Alberta through Windsor, Ontario, onto Ann Arbor, then down the Mississippi flyway to end at the wintering habitat in Mexico. The tour emphasizes the importance of all pollinators and the restoration of their habitats all along their life journey. Rotarians gathered after the program to be photographed with the statue.
President Mark invited us to participate in the Environmental Action Committee’s Tree Planting Project to take place on Saturday, Oct. 7 from 9 a.m. – noon in the Bryant neighborhood. The goal is to plant 18 trees. This is a fun project and one with more-than-a-lifetime returns on your time and energy investment. Check out the website: https://forms.office.com/g/TRPGxXkvTb
John Sepp invites all of our club members to a Happy Hour at the Session Room on Monday, oct. 5 at 5:30 p.m.
Dennis Powers introduced guest speaker, Matthew VanBesien. Brand-new Ann Arbor Rotary Club Member, VanBesien has served as the president of the University Musical Society since 2017, following Rotary Club member Ken Fischer. VanBesien is the seventh president in UMS’s 145-year history. Before his role in Michigan, Matthew served as Executive Director and then President of the New York Philharmonic from 2012-2017. He served as Managing Director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra from 2010-2012, following positions at the Houston Symphony as Executive Director/CEO, and General Manager, from 2002-2009.
Matthew VanBesien
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, VanBesien earned a Bachelor of Music degree in French horn performance from Indiana University and was the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Manhattan School of Music. He serves as the Secretary and Treasurer on the Board of the International Society for the Performing Arts, and as an Executive Committee member of the University of Michigan’s Presidential Arts Initiative.
VanBesien noted that UMS is now in its 145th season (https://ums.org/season/for the full season outlined during his talk) and the organization’s incredible history and legacy is a responsibility he takes very seriously. He noted proudly that UMS is the first presenter in the US connected with a University and that UMS won a National Medal of Arts in 2014.
With 50-70 performances and 200-300 learning engagements annually, UMS brings the world to Ann Arbor audiences. He gave a glorious whirlwind tour of the 2023-24 season’s music (classical, world, jazz, hip hop, fusion), theater, dance and digital programming. He highlighted the panoply of K-12 performances as well as university master classes, outside dance workshops and events at the Ypsi Freight House.
VanBesien noted that during the pandemic, UMS created unique-to-the-event digital programming which connected people in isolation to the arts. Theirs was an intentional decision not to monetize their productions, but to give unique and vital productions for people hungry for the solace and affirmation of the arts.
UMS is already at work in preparing for its 150th anniversary. VanBesien shared that he is already getting this date in front of many potential guest artists, as well as looking to multi-day residencies in the community and a large-scale commission (to echo UMS’s founding piece Handel’s Messiah?).
Thanks to data collected by UMS marketing department headed by Sara Billman, VanBesien was able to quell the fear that the audience is graying. UMS shows that the average age of the concert goer 10 years ago was 55; today that average age is 50.
VanBesien was thanked for his talk by a hearty round of applause.
Next week’s speaker is Marie Klopf, President of the Lower Town Riverfront Conservancy speaking on Broadway Park West: Visioning Ann Arbor’s Privately Developed and Managed Public Space.
President Mark concluded the meeting by asking all to stand and recite the Rotary four-way test:
