Do you balance looking backward and looking around with looking forward?
“Just keep moving on
from “Move On” in Sunday In The Park With George (music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim)
Anything you do
Let it come from you
Then it will be new
Give us more to see”
“When I say ‘what’s next?’ I mean I’m ready to move on to the next thing. What’s next?”
Pres. Jed Bartlet, from “The West Wing”
“I don’t look back. I look forward and plan new shows. That’s really feeding the most important part of working in the theater.”
Broadway Producer Hal Prince
Looking towards the future is an essential component of my instinct as a teacher, as a leader, as a creator.
I was talking with a colleague recently, encouraging them to consider commissioning a new work before they retired. When I remarked that my list of works commissioned with the Rockford Choirs over the last 15 years now numbers in the thirties, I was almost as surprised as they were.
Commissioning new music is an essential forward looking activity. You are looking forward to your future ensemble. You are looking forward to a work that doesn’t yet exist. You are looking forward to shepherding new works into the repertory: works that other ensembles can appreciate.
We certainly must balance looking backward to the past and looking around at the present; both are essential. But if we don’t commit to expending energy on looking forward, I think we’re losing the chance to create something.
Something’s coming, I don’t know what it is, But it is gonna be great.”
From “Something’s Coming” in West Side Story (Stephen Sondheim, lyrics; Leonard Bernstein, music)