Via austinkleon:

Benjamin Zander’s TED Talk: Classical music with shining eyes

Probably a lot of you know the story of the two salesmen who went down to Africa in the 1900s. They were sent down to find if there was any opportunity for selling shoes. And they wrote telegrams back to Manchester. And one of them wrote: “Situation hopeless. Stop. They don’t wear shoes.” And the other one wrote: “Glorious opportunity. They don’t have any shoes yet.” Now, there’s a similar situation in the classical music world…

Love this quote about playing piano, too:

“The trouble with you is you’re a two-buttock player. You should be a one-buttock player.”

Really excellent. Watch it!

This presentation, which was made/recorded more than two years ago, should be on the must-watch lists of art organizations’ staff and board members.