Leon Botstein

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Leon Botstein, President, Bard College and conductor and music director, New York Symphony Orchestra. Botstein traces his dual career paths. He compares leadership in an orchestra and in a liberal arts college. He recalls his innovations as a conductor emphasizing the need to place music in its intellectual, political and social context. Botstein then focuses on the challenges of higher education, identifying the elements of an ideal curriculum and programs that foster creativity. He concludes with a critique of the American education system and identifies the essential feature of meaningful reform.