Joyce DiDonato is an American operatic lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of Handel – she is also an artist speaking to artists in this recent speech to the Julliard School of Music. Emphasis hers.
The world needs you – now, the world may not exactly realize it, but wow, does it need you. . . .
We need you to help us understand that which is bigger than ourselves, so that we can stop feeling so small, so isolated, so helpless that, in our fear, we stop contributing that which is unique to us: . . .
We need you to remind us what empathy is by taking us deep into the hearts of those who are, God forbid, different from us – so that we can recapture the hope of not only living in peace with each other, but THRIVING together in a vibrant way where each of us grows in wonder and joy.
We need you to make us feel an integral PART of a shared existence through the communal, universal, forgiving language of music, of dance, of poetry and Art – so that we never lose sight of the fact that we are all in this together and that we are all deserving of a life that overflows with immense possibility, improbable beauty and relentless truth.