Richard Kessler
From 1997 to 2004, Mr. Kessler was executive director of the American Music Center (AMC), the national service and information center for new American music. During his tenure, Mr. Kessler’s accomplishments included the creation of award-winning web magazine NewMusicBox.org, a nationwide career development program for composers and performers, the establishment of the American Music Center Collection at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the establishment of AMC’s first endowment, the creation of the National Music Coalition, and an increase in AMC grant making programs to more than $7 million from 2002–2004.
From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Kessler was vice president of Artsvision, an arts education consulting company where he created and implemented arts and education programs throughout the United States and Canada. He designed programs for school communities, arts organizations, and foundations, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, GE Fund, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, New York Community Trust, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and many others. Before joining Artsvision, Mr. Kessler was a Naumburg Award-winning chamber musician, performing as a trombonist and teaching throughout the world for almost fifteen years.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Kessler holds two degrees from The Juilliard School and was a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music from 1988 to 1993. He is a board member of the American Composers Orchestra, the Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT), Sequitur–a new–music presenting organization, and the Steering Committee of the New York City Arts Coalition. In May 2005, Kessler received a Letter of Distinction from the American Music Center for his significant contribution to the field of contemporary American music.
Blog
News
December 4 • EdWeek profile questions motives of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.
November 10 • You can now read Diane Ravitch’s op/ed on 21st century skills in the Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Metro West Daily News, Lowell Sun, and Quincy Patriot Ledger.
November 3 • Education Week highlights Common Core's concerns about the appointment of a P21 leader to a key Dept. of Education post.
November • Lynne Munson and Richard Kessler explain why arts education is vital in the November 2009 issue of Parenting magazine.
October 10 • Diane Ravitch's recent op/ed on 21st century skills has been reprinted in the Providence Journal.
September 16 • A group of prominent scholars, teachers, education reform advocates, and union leaders issued a statement today expressing concern about the program put forth by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) and calling for its revision. Press Advisory (pdf)
September 15 • Common Core’s Diane Ravitch shows how dated the idea of “21st century skills” really is in the Boston Globe
July 13 • Common Core’s Lynne Munson raises concerns about national standards at convention of the American Federation of Teachers. (PDF document)
July 9 • In USAToday Common Core’s Lynne Munson argues that a comprehensive education is more likely than a STEM education to produce new scientists.
July 2 • A USAToday editorial cites and links to Common Core’s “Still at Risk”" study which showed how little our 17-year-olds know about history and literature.
June 2 • Common Core releases Why We’re Behind: What Top Nations Teach Their Students But We Don’t, a report showing that the nations that consistently outrank us on international comparison tests provide their students with a fulsome education in the liberal arts and sciences. Why is this news? Because the U.S. is moving further and further away from this model. Read brief excerpts from the documents featured in the report here.
