Episode 140 Morgan Walker - "Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home"

This week we highlight one of the many reasons we are so lucky to live here. You can find my full discussion with Morgan Walker, Executive Director of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, here.

 

Here are the questions I asked:

 

0:35 1. In the spring of last year you came to us from Paducah, Kentucky to take the reins as the Executive Director of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra. Since 1948 Shreveport has been blessed to have a symphony. In fact, it’s the oldest continuously operating symphony in Louisiana.

 

We’re going to cover all kinds of aspects of the Shreveport Symphony today. But let’s start here. I know you do a lot of work with and in the schools. Tell me about some of this if you could.

 

2:55 2. Let’s talk some about your vision and initiatives. Tell me first about some of the things that will continue or stay the same with you at the helm?

 

3:41 3. And then let’s talk about some of the things that will be different or that are priorities for you to add or change.

 

5:37 4. What are the Symphony’s greatest challenges today and for those in our community listening, how can they best help you achieve your mission?

 

9:15 5. I once heard your great Music Director Michael Butterman say the following,

 

“We are all being rewired through our connectivity, through our devices and so on. We’re looking for the next ding, the next little stimulation. The idea of being multi-tasking and scattered is something that’s just kinda creeping into our very way of being. So that’s a challenge but it’s also an opportunity. What I mean by that is that more than ever I think people are looking for chances to kinda unplug. To transcend that kind of frantic pace. They might find it through prayer. They might find it through meditation. I suggest you can also find it through really losing yourself in great music like we play.”

 

You and I are a bit in a similar business. We are both selling quality of life enhancements to the community. How do you sell that to people when it’s not necessarily easy to quantify or demonstrate a ROI for?