Conference design and leadership
- Founder and Co-designer of the World’s First (Oslo 2012) and Second (Brisbane 2014) International Teaching artist Conferences; major design contributor to ITAC 3 (Edinburth), ITAC 4 (New York) and ITAC5 (Seoul Korea).
- Designer and co-leader of The Kennedy Center’s first two Arts Education Leadership Conferences.
- Designer and teacher of The Kennedy Center’s first online for-credit course.
- Designer of the first and the subsequent model for VSArts national three day trainings for teaching artists working with people with disabilities.
- Designer and leader of the original MusicianCorps training. (2010)
- Co-designer (or contributing designer) and co-facilitator of the first two National Performing Arts Conferences (2004, 2008) Each was the largest gathering to that time in the U.S. arts history.
- Designer and leader of The Leonard Bernstein Center’s first national educators conference. (1994)
- Designer and leader of the Teaching Artist Track at the National Guild for Community Arts Education conference--an annual event that advances the field of teaching artistry throughout the year.
Speaker
- Closing Keynote speaker at the first UNESCO worldwide arts education conference. (Lisbon 2006)
- Keynote speaker at the world’s first conference on orchestras and community/education programs. (Glasgow 2006)
- Recipient of the first honorary doctorate for teaching artistry, and Commencement Address. (New England Conservatory 2012)
- Conference host and closing keynote at London Olympic Arts Festival closing conference on education, sponsored by The Tate Museums and the Royal Shakespeare Company. (2012)
- He wrote and delivered the first syndicated radio program on American trends (Business Radio Network, 1992-94).
- First teaching artist to be awarded the Americans for the Arts Arts Education Leadership Award (2015), recognized as the nation's highest award in this field.
- Keynote speaker to the First Southern Progressive Education Summit (New Orleans, October 2015)
- He was selected as one of the "Top 50 Most Powerful and Influential Leaders in the Nonprofit Arts (USA) 2015" on Barry's Blog, the only teaching artist and only freelancer among the 50.
Programs/organizations
- Co-Founder of the Community Engagement Lab in Vermont. (2012)
- Leader of the first U.S. Summit on Teaching Artistry (2011, New York City)
- Co-designer of the First U.S. Teaching Artist Yearlong Fellowship (Big Thought). (2012-13)
- Co-designer, and later, designer, and lead teacher of the first conservatory teaching artist training program (Art and Education/Morse Fellowship program at Juilliard. 1994)
- Senior Advisor to the launch of the U.S. El Sistema movement, as well as Senior Advisor to the design and launch the Abreu Fellowship at NEC (now called the Sistema Fellowship), which was the first U.S. program training El Sistema leadership. (2009-2013)
- Consultant to First Regional Teaching Artist Certification Program. (South Florida, 2012)
- Co-designer and leader of the first formal Mentoring programs at Juilliard—connecting students with mentoring-trained faculty and with NYC arts professionals.
- Designer and leader of the first national teaching artist award with paid residency at Montalvo Arts Center (Saratoga, CA).
- Founder/President of Alert Publishing, Inc., at the time the largest business in the U.S. reporting trends found in research on American lifestyles, with four newsletters, books, reports on key issues, and the first syndicated radio program on trends in America. (1984). Alert Publishing became the largest company of its kind in the U.S. in 7 years.
- Co-Founder of the International Teaching Artist Conference (2o12) and Founder of The International Teaching Artist Collaborative (2019)—the first global network of artists who work in communities and schools. Founder of ITAC IMPACT: Climate (2021) the first global network of teaching artists committed to making a difference in the climate crisis.
Writing
- Founding Editor of The Teaching Artist Journal, the first peer reviewed professional journal for the field.
- Author of the first major-publisher book on Teaching Artistry. (The Music Teaching Artist’s Bible, Oxford University Press, 2009)
- Founding Publisher of the only newsletters for the El Sistema movement: The Ensemble (U.S./Canada) and The World Ensemble (global).
- Founding Editor of Research Alert (1984), the first business research newsletter on trends in U.S. lifestyles, which was the largest publication of its kind in the nation, for which he wrote over 60 articles on current and future trends in the U.S..
- Author of seven published books (maybe not all firsts), but Playing for Their Lives (co-authored with Tricia Tunstall) is the first book about the global music for social change movement, and the books The Music Teaching Artist's Bible and The Everyday Work of Art are the first textbooks used in university training of teaching artists.
And he may be the only person ever to appear on network television in these two ways on the same day: on NBC, he acted in a soap opera in the afternoon, and as a non-fiction trend expert on the evening news.