Page 56 - APAP - Inside Arts - Conference 2020

Meet two guest speakers
at APAP|NYC 2020.
plenary session Tuesday, January 14 at APAP|NYC. Inside Arts caught up with Folds on the road last fall to ask a few questions. Our interview follows.
In your book you talk about following your interests. What are the risks to an artist in doing so?
Well, obviously there are limits to following all interests. Like there would be in running across a busy highway to take a photograph. Reality has its say. In a career we might find ourselves in trouble taking too many invisible and non- lucrative projects, for instance. But understanding that the goal is to remain interested and to follow what lights up for you – to not
go against your artistic interests reflexively simply because it’s not “normal” or recommended – is important.
How have you managed throughout your career to
be resilient?
Truly, I always have something I can look forward to – thanks to my interests. I understood the humiliating and frustrating nature of a music career early on. I feel fortunate to be immersed in it and try to remember that failures are inevitable, as are moments in the day when an inspiring thing or thought has occurred.
Ben
Ben
FoFlds Folds
R egarded as a major music influencer, the
multiplatinum-selling singer-songwriter Ben Folds has
created genre-bending music that includes pop albums with the alternative rock trio the Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums and numerous collaborations. Folds has performed with some of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras and serves as the first artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. A champion of arts education and music therapy, he is a member of the artist committee at Americans for the Arts, where he chairs the Arts Action Fund ArtsVote2020 initiative and hosts a podcast on arts policy with 2020 presidential candidates. He is also the author of A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music
and Cheap Lessons, a bestselling collection of essays, anecdotes and lessons about art, life and music. He will be the speaker at the closing
54 INSIDE ARTS CONFERENCE 2020