The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-06
From Musical America.

I<fTfS because I'm three fourths Amer
 ican in spirit and this is the coun- A try in whic hthings are done on a
 scale of enormous magnitude that would
 like to see America the musical head
 quarters of the world. I would like to see
 It in such a commanding position musi-
 caliy that all the rest of the world would
 have to come to it for what it now go ss
 to the old world to get. And this can be
 done. How? By cornering the market ir
 great artists. It is an immense scheme
 and involves the necessity of having a
 fund of millions to begin with, but 1t is
 not impracticable, it can be done.
 Leopold Godowsky spoke with the in spring conviction of implicit confidence
 In a project that he has carefully thought
 cut in all it's ramifications, anticipating all the difficulties its realization wouid ] present. enthusiastic over the extent ot US possibilities. It has been a hobby ol | DIS Tor long time and he has broachee l 1t to men of influence whenever oppor. tunity has presented. thus gradually pre-
 pairing the ground for it. Perhaps too l his amazement at the stupendous changes
 he sees here, notably in New York, after
 an absence of 12 years, lends an addi. tional fllip to his enthusiasm over it al this time.
 he proceeded to unfold the particulars l My idea is this: to bring over all the great musical artists Of the world and organize one great musical center, with a great conservatory, the finest opera ba 1 four concert halls adapted for the differ ent purposes, such as symphony concerts chamber music concerts, recitals. and SC forth, perhaps all in the same building l like the Philharmonic in Berlin, for ex- ample, and a theatre. Any more or less central city could be decided upon, though l would suggest Washington as the logi- | cal choice, as it is the capital. Let the faculty be composed of the best artists, l have an orchestra made up of these artist | teachers and bring over man like Rose of Vienna, the finest concertmaster in the world, and you could have the finest sym phony orchestra in the world. Have a school of conducting, under such men as
 Nikisch, Muck, Weingartner, Mengelbe-g he is a very great conductor-and let these men share the duties of conducting concerts and let the students have prac- tical opportunities to acquire experience in conducting
 Tor the violin department you could have, say, Ysaye. Kreisler and Sevcil., and then other first class men, such as Rose, associated with them, and for the piano, BIsoni, Sauer and Hofmann, be- sides myself, and we would supervise the teaching of others. Similarly, the world s best teachers could be corralled for the vocal department and all the other Branches. In connection with the thea ire have school of dramatic art where actors would learn the fundamentals of their craft instead of setting out to be- come stars overnight And make tie
 place a Bayreuth and have special festi-
 vals every year. Have Mozart festivals.
 as they do every summer in Munich, and
 elaborate and comprehensive series Of symphony and chamber music concerts.
 Then you could send lecturers all over
 the country to help educate the general
 public in music by giving scientific lee. tures."
 Think what this would all meani Every year American music students pour hun dreds of thousands of dollars into Europe Then students would have to come here from all parts of the world for the simple
 reason that they wouldn't be able to get what they wanted anywhere else More oyer then and only then could the great est artists be induced to settle here. As it is now, if a great artist becomes local ized here he loses his prestige with the general public. Isn't it so? If they like my work in this country this winter l