09/14/2026 The Sound of Democracy

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Music is often described as a universal language, but American music may be something even more interesting. It is the product of different cultures, different traditions, different voices - of people borrowing from one another, occasionally argumentatively, and sometimes creating something entirely new.

Our guests are American banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck and Colin Jacobsen, artistic director of Santa Fe Pro Musica. Their conversation begins with a discussion of Fleck’s interesting arrangement of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which will open Santa Fe Pro Musica's 2026-2027 season and launch its new series, Democratic Vistas. From there, the conversation broadens as Jacobsen explores how music can reflect democratic ideals including different voices in dialogue, disagreement and collaboration and, ultimately, the creation of something more inclusive than one voice.