Push back against the city's assumed limits.
observation — attributed to J. Francisco Núñez
Núñez was told early that New York was not a choral city. It was an instrument city. The choirs that existed were appendages to instrumental programs, oriented toward socialization and soft skills rather than artistic excellence. Núñez disagreed and built the proof. YPC brought together children from different parts of the city, different religions, different financial backgrounds, different ethnicities, to make music at the highest level. New York today is a choral city. The observation generalizes. The categories an industry tells you do not exist in your context are sometimes assumptions that have ossified into facts. The category builder gets there by refusing the framing.
For arts entrepreneurs, category-creating program founders, and anyone working against received industry wisdom about what is possible in their context. The observation is most useful as encouragement against the structural skepticism that greets new categories.
new-york-choral-city, assumptions, category-creation, perseverance