History is often just the first time something was recorded,”

observes Don Youngberg. “What we call ‘history’ is often just a convenient milestone for a project, process, or movement that has been developing over a long period of time.”

Artists, scientists, and scholars from decades or centuries ago did not know that their work would eventually be decreed by others to be of historic note, or would pave the way for historic events in the future. But their work was no less historic.

The business of arts and culture has not always existed, and how we do business today is different from 10, 100, or 1,000 years ago. Everything we do today in our jobs was started at some point by someone. History was made on February 16, 1998 when the staff of the Metropolitan Opera went live with Tessitura.

“We can’t predict what programs from our world of arts and culture might be labeled as historic a year, a decade, or a century from now. But I do believe that the work we are doing now will contribute to historic moments.”

 

Don delivered this talk during the closing session of the 2018 Tessitura Learning & Community Conference in Orlando in July 2018.