Field Notes

ECM Field Notes Archive

April 20, 2026. I was saddened this week to read about the closure of Hampshire College, one of America鈥檚 most interesting and unique educational institutions. Hampshire鈥檚 curriculum favored projects over traditional classroom-based courses, written evaluations over letter or number grades, and granted considerable autonomy to students to shape their own educational journey...

March 24, 2026. As many of you have already seen, the March 9th edition of the New York Times carried an article on the ongoing financial struggles of the Metropolitan Opera. (The Met Opera鈥檚 Desperate Hunt for Money - The New York Times, March 9, 2026) Because of a post I鈥檇 made regarding a previous article on the subject (check out the LinkedIn post here), a reporter from the Times reached out to me a few weeks ago and asked if I would like to be interviewed for this new story...

February 6, 2026. To start off, apologies to those who have been awaiting a continuation of the discussion of 鈥渧alue鈥 that I teed up for you with my previous entry. We鈥檒l get back to that, I promise! But in the meantime, I want to share with you a wonderful experience that kicked off my New Year鈥攁nd the many thoughts it inspired. (I had anticipated getting this out a month ago when everything was fresh in my mind, but you know how that goes鈥)

Jan. 5, 2026. Hey, look! 2025 is now behind us鈥nd we made it! In addition to our individual trials and triumphs (hopefully you saw more of the latter), many of us also struggled with what my husband likes to call, 鈥淕eneral existential doom and gloom鈥: anxiety about the state of our world and what we 鈥 as artists, as educators, as citizens 鈥 can do about it...

Oct. 31, 2025. When I last posted an edition of 鈥淔ield Notes,鈥 I was wrapping up my final semester as Director of the Entrepreneurship Center for Music at CU-Boulder. Contrary to the belief of countless friends and colleagues who didn鈥檛 read their email carefully, I was not retiring altogether...

May 19, 2025. 鈥淲ait 鈥 you have an eclipse on your Birthday??鈥 We were sitting on the porch off the main hall at MacDowell, in Peterborough, NH, chatting after dinner, and one of the other Fellows 鈥 a Chinese-American poet, and also a dedicated astrologer 鈥 was reviewing my natal chart. It was October 14, 2023, the date of an annular solar eclipse. It was also my 59th Birthday...

March 19, 2025. I鈥檝e been waffling about the topic for this latest edition of 鈥淔ield Notes.鈥 Should I observe the 5-year anniversary of the Covid lockdown by reflecting on things artists and arts organizations learned鈥nd opportunities we missed? (Nah: aren鈥檛 we all tired of talking about the pandemic??) Perhaps I should use recent conversations in my corner of academia to once again get on my soapbox regarding the importance of interdisciplinary teaching and research...

December 3, 2024. I realize I'm biased when I say this, but my husband is pretty amazing. Take for instance the work he does as Asst. Vice President for Community Relations at Premier Members Credit Union, here in Colorado, where he oversees the credit union's many sponsorship arrangements with local non-profits as well as programs in sustainability, corporate and social responsibility, and more. But I'm not posting here to brag about him (though I'm happy to do that). Today I want to look at a specific program that he's created that is truly innovative, and should serve as a model for arts organizations looking to expand programming and garner more corporate sponsorship...

November 21, 2024. Earlier this week I woke up in a bad space. I鈥檓 talking, 鈥淚 can鈥檛 bear facing the world鈥 kind of bad space. The feeling was probably made worse by the fact that I鈥檝e been fighting some weird cold, one that oscillates between feeling okay but a little washed out and crashing headfirst into oblivion...

November 16, 2023.听I鈥檓 just off a three week residency at MacDowell, and it was nothing short of transformational. As I post this it鈥檚 exactly one month since I left, yet part of me remains in that magical place. The process of transitioning from 鈥渓eaving part of myself behind at MacDowell鈥 to 鈥渂ringing MacDowell back with me into my daily life鈥 is ongoing...and complex. So this is an unusual 鈥淔ield Notes鈥...

April 25, 2023. On April 12, we here at The University of Colorado-Boulder had our New Venture Challenge Championships, the culminating event in a year-long initiative to support entrepreneurship on campus...

January 24, 2023.听A month or so ago I posted the first part of two-part edition of 鈥淔ield Notes鈥 in which I began contemplating what鈥檚 next for the performing arts industry...

November 15, 2022.听The other day I read the latest research on the effects of the Chicxulub asteroid that crashed into Earth approx. 66 million years ago...

October 11, 2021.听Two weeks ago the CU-Boulder College of Music officially opened its new wing to the Warner Imig Music Building, a 50,000 square-foot addition that houses rehearsal spaces, studios, classrooms, a wellness studio...

May 18, 2021. It was 1:00 am and my body did not appreciate the chiming of my alarm waking me up out of a deep sleep...

February, 23听2021. A critical component of our nation鈥檚 recovery from the pandemic 鈥 both economically and socially 鈥 will be to fund a significant bail-out of our arts and culture industries...

January 16, 2021.听In 2008, the Federal government deemed an $83 billion bailout of the automotive industry essential to stabilizing an economy in freefall. And they were right: the plan...

"I honestly don't know how we come out of this. If I were a student again I'd be leaving music school to do something else." My colleague sighed, a look of utter defeat on her face. "What do I tell these kids about their future?"听I didn't have a good answer for her...

October 27, 2020.听The spring semester was to have seen us launch the first-ever Lullaby Project in a collegiate setting. (You can learn more about the Lullaby Project and its history听.) In partnership with the Crown Wellness Institute here at CU we would...

Feb. 11, 2020.听Say the word 鈥渢eam鈥 to me and the first thing I鈥檓 likely to think of is getting picked last in gym class when teams were being chosen, and inevitably hearing a whining sigh along the lines of, 鈥淥h [expletive]! Not听Nytch.鈥 This would usually be followed by my justifying their disappointment...

January 15, 2020. After a lovely Winter Break I was kicking off the New Year with a trip to a conference I hadn鈥檛 been to in a while, the annual meeting of The United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), North America鈥檚 leading organization for entrepreneurship in higher education. I鈥檇 had two presentations accepted and was...

December 3, 2019.听Two weeks back the ECM sponsored an event called Nour鈥sh, a local installment of a nationwide initiative to find common ground among disparate groups and build community through humanity鈥檚 two great unifiers: music and food. The brainchild of my colleague...

November 12, 2019.听Back in October I had the privilege of hosting Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (鈥淧NME鈥) for a joint residency at the CU College of Music and Boulder鈥檚 Dairy Arts Center. There were many reasons why one would want to host this group. For starters, PNME is the oldest continuously-operating professional new music ensemble in the country, having premiered over 300 new works by...

October 12, 2019.听Greetings and welcome to a new publication from the Entrepreneurship Center for Music at CU-Boulder! For some time I鈥檝e been wondering about how best to communicate not just the activities of the ECM, our students, and our graduates, but also to discuss issues in the field of arts entrepreneurship education, the Boulder entrepreneurial ecosystem, and my...