JOHN SANT'AMBROGIO ON COLLABORATION

I can't think of the arts without thinking about one word: collaboration. It's not just because I love teamwork or because I've spent decades as a member of a professional orchestra. It's more that the arts, by their very nature, seem to involve a working together—a collaboration between performers, or between artist and audience, or even between the musician and the notes on the page. To me, the cooperative spirit—a sharing, a give and take—is inherent in the creative experience.

I've always thought that creativity really has its basis in the question of what you're willing to do for God's other beloved children. So whether I'm rehearsing with a symphony or working with participants at my "Arts for the Soul" retreat, I love grounding my endeavors in Mary Baker Eddy's poem "Christ My Refuge." It says, in part:

My prayer, some daily good to do
To Thine, for Thee;
An offering pure of Love, whereto
God leadeth me. ^{Poems, p. 13.}