Eric Booth

As an actor, Eric Booth has performed in many plays on Broadway, Off-Broadway and around the country, playing over 23 Shakespearean roles, and winning acting awards on both coasts. As a businessman, he started a small company, Alert Publishing, that in seven years became the largest of its kind in the U.S. analyzing research on trends in American lifestyles; he was a frequent trend pundit in the major media, with a nationally syndicated radio program. As an author, he has had five books published. The Everyday Work of Art won three awards and was a Book of the Month Club selection. He has written three dozen magazine articles, was the Founding Editor of the Teaching Artist Journal, and his new book The Music Teaching Artist's Bible was published by Oxford University Press in 2009. In arts learning, he has taught at Juilliard (13 years), Stanford University, NYU, Tanglewood and Lincoln Center Institute (for 25 years), and The Kennedy Center (12 years). He was the Faculty Chair of the Empire State Partnership program for three years (the largest arts-in-education project in America), and held one of six chairs on The College Board's Arts Advisory Committee for seven years. He serves as a consultant for many arts organizations, cities and states and businesses around the country, including six of the ten largest orchestras in America, and five national service organizations. Formerly the Director of the Teacher Center of the Leonard Bernstein Center, he is a frequent keynote speaker on the arts to groups of all kinds. He delivered the closing keynote speech to UNESCO's first ever worldwide arts education conference (Lisbon 2006) and was the only American speaker, and he gave the keynote speech to the first world conference on orchestras connections to communities (Glasgow 2007). He recently completed a six week speaking tour of Scotland and Australia. He is the Senior Advisor to the Music National Service initiative (lead trainer and training designer for MusicianCorps). He is also Senior Advisor to El Sistema USA, a national organization training Abreu Fellows and spearheading the development of El Sistema-related sites around the U.S.