The Most Interesting Man in San Antonio

 In this episode of Halfway Human, we sit down with Suhail, possibly the most interesting person in San Antonio. From gymnastics and world travel to his work with Musical Bridges Around the World, Suhail brings stories, perspective, and energy from experiences across the globe. We also dive into neuroscience, human behavior, creativity, and how travel and culture can completely reshape the way we think and connect with others. It is a thoughtful, fun, and wide-ranging conversation that goes far beyond the surface. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

So welcome back to another episode of Halfway Human. We are actually in a very interesting location, and we'll get to that in a minute. Um, it's the most dressed up I've ever been for my podcast. But we have what I call the most interesting man in San Antonio. Zoo Hell, right? Did I get that right? And how the last name? Give me the last name. Arustu. Arustu. Okay, because I didn't want to mess that up. I always say Suhail and I get in trouble. So it's Zuhail, right? Suhail. It is Suhail. Okay. See already screw hell. It's it's all you were talking about. He's the most interesting man in San Antonio. I can't get his name right. So I want to start with musical bridges. And you'll see me look at my phone because I have notes on you. But um I kind of want to lead in. Well, we may go a little bit out of order here, but how did you uh you started it from what I saw, uh just kind of very small. Uh and tell us what you do. You're the executive director.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

Advancement.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Advancement. Um and tell us a little bit about musical bridges, how it started, because I heard it started with just like you and somebody else basically started it, right? Is that is that kind of how it started?

SPEAKER_03 1:14

Actually, it started before I moved back to the U.S. Oh, okay. And it was started by a woman who came from the Soviet Union. She's a classically trained pianist. Yeah, just move it up just a little bit toward yourself.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

There you go. Perfect. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

Yeah, a classically trained pianist from the Soviet Union began musical bridges back in the late 90s, and it came to be because at the time Father David Garcia was the rector of San Fernando Cathedral. Uh-huh. The oldest continuously operating Catholic sanctuary in the U.S. we're fortunate to have in our city center.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

He was on sabbatical in Europe and saw great houses of worship activated by classical and chamber music outside of liturgy and mass. He said, What a beautiful idea to welcome people of all faiths into this space. And can we do that here in San Antonio when he got back? Yeah. And you heard about this woman that was having house concerts in the Hill Country and asked her if she would share her musicians with the church. And having come from the Soviet Union, when of course it wasn't really a religion for a while, they used churches for concert halls. So it was kind of a normal thing. And that's how Musical Bridges began by invitation of Father David Garcia. And we just honored him actually at a concert last month for everything he's done for the city, but the legacy of creating this organization. And then we would kind of pass around the collection plate uh to help pay for the airfare for these artists that were coming in. And this woman approached Anya and she goes, Well, you've really should formalize this and form a nonprofit. Anya's English was very limited at the time, and she didn't know what a nonprofit was in a place like the Soviet Union, everything's sponsored by the state. So you don't think about there's no such thing as nonprofits or really fundraising wasn't a thing. Yeah. Art. And this is a young country, also. We're in our semi-quincentennial this year. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so arts is seen as in a young country, discretionary, it's kind of a value add, entertainment. It's not seen as a core pillar of society as it is in the old world. So that being said, she was like, Yeah, we can share these artists. And they passed around the collection plate. And this woman by the name of Paula Owen, who some of your listeners may know was the director of the Southwest School of Art for many years, the president there, and did great things for the institution. And this group of women, like one was a CPA, an attorney, and a count, got together and they formally started Musical Bridges as a nonprofit. Yeah. And fast forward a decade probably later, and that's when I came back to the US and fell upon this organization through a friend of mine who was a pianist that I encountered in Japan. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Okay. That's what I read. Yeah, it was a pianist. And and so you said you were overseas. I uh you went to Japan, is that right? Am I right about this? Yeah. And so where where did you we'll get back to musical bridges, but I kind of want to connect that because it's interesting to me. So you traveled a lot uh in an early age, I guessed. And and and so why do that? Like what was the purpose behind that?

SPEAKER_03 4:13

I traveled a lot at an early age, just circumstantially. Yeah, I come from an in Indian family. Yeah, and I have 52 first cousins on five continents. So wow. To see anybody, you really had to travel. Yeah. Now I growing up in San Antonio, my mother was a flight surgeon and lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force. Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. So you were you born here? I was actually born in Omaha. Oh, okay. My sister's Canadian, my brother's from Phoenix, but we all grew up in San Antonio.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

I got you. And so so the the Air Force brought your mom here. And then I read somewhere that uh you uh moved into you were a gymnast. I was. I was Berkeley, is that right? And so what you you went to Berkeley, you were a gymnast. Were you good at it? I mean, let's he made a face.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

I mean I I competed at as in Junior Olympics in high school. Yeah. And I ended up competing NCAA in college. Because that's a pretty that's division one, right? Am I right? Yeah, yeah. Cal was my dream school for multiple reasons, but they had just won two consecutive national championships. They were the top NCAA men's gymnastics team in the country. And I was so fortunate I was only one of three Americans on the freshman coming in that year, and on my teammates, and my coach actually kind of reminds me of Pop. Like he recruits really internationally at the time. I had teammates from the Norwegian national team, Israeli national team, Ukrainian, Chinese. And it was amazing. Like that experience in and of itself was so enriching.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

Yeah. And in my formative years. So yeah, I went to Cal, competed NCAAN's gymnastics, division one, and uh double majored in classics and neurobiology. Yeah, I read that. Yeah, that's crazy. Thinking that I wanted to study medicine. I mean, yeah, it was kind of like was my interest. But when I started grad school in Philly, I realized about three months into the program that I couldn't spend the next eight years of my life in a lab.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

So I filed for leave of absence and moved to a small fishing village in northwest Japan to have my That's crazy. That's I call it my year at Walden Pond.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

And so, so how did you get so was there before I go too much further? What was your best like uh apparatus? I guess I should say, because I don't know much about gymnasts, but is did you have a specific one that you were really good at? Palmel horse. Palmel horse. That's a difficult one too, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 6:37

Yeah, people it's kind of like the equivalent of some would say the beam for women's gymnastics. It's but uh it got a lot of notoriety in this last Olympics. If you watch, they call him the Palm Horse Guy. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so that that was my that was my my best event.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

So why go? I mean, that's that's I know we so childhood growing up here in San Antonio, how was that? Like, was it did you go like was it a good childhood? Like, did you have a like what was that like, I guess, growing up here? Because you you seem well traveled and you moved around a lot. So coming here and living here, how how has that been as uh as a child, I guess?

SPEAKER_03 7:16

Yeah, most of my life was here. I mean, we moved around when I was younger. My mom did seven years of active duty and then 13 years of reserves. So though I was born in Omaha, I really have no recollection. We moved away when I was two.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:30

Never lived in Canada, though we would summer there because my my parents had siblings up in Buffalo and Toronto. And I do remember my two years in Phoenix. Yeah. So that was when my brother was born, and that was where I did kindergarten in first grade. So from second grade through high school, I was in San Antonio. Yeah. So your most of your childhood, yeah. Most of my childhood. And so we moved from like Leon Valley to the Northeast. Oh, yeah. And uh I ended up graduating from MacArthur. But I would say my it was very disciplined, like mother in the Air Force, academics, athletics, trained four to six hours a day in high school.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

And so So you were already practicing for gymnast at that age, basically.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

I started with in second grade. Okay, okay. And I would say that it I was a, I guess, a hardworking kid, and and I didn't really know much about San Antonio or the community or the city. It was just where I grew up. I yeah. And my parents were immigrants, and so they did the our religious stuff and they did the stuff at home and kind of raised us, but I didn't really know much about San Antonio and I had no intention of coming back here or staying here for that matter. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

So you you how did you go from n I guess neuroscience to art? I mean, like that's a big leap. Actually, it's a very strong connection. Is it?

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

So so how how did you get there, I guess? How did you connect there? When did it finally click to you that that's something you really wanted to do?

SPEAKER_03 8:58

The reason I ended up studying classics as one of my majors, because I did Latin in high school. I ended up starting with Greek language in college, shifting to civilization. I always had an interest there, but probably fewer career options as a classicist, unless you go into academia. With the neuroscience, I was fascinated. And it really came my freshman anatomy, general anatomy class in college at Cal. And my professor walked into the classroom with a hat box, and she said, Can anybody guess what's in my hat box?

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

And she opened the lid and she pulled out a human brain. Wow. And she said a real brain. This is a real brain. Real brain from a cadaver. And she said, This three-pound mass of protoplasm that sits in the palm of my hand is capable of conceiving of universes, galaxies. Oh, that's crazy. And is also capable of every emotion from the most profound sadness to the highest form of ecstasy and everything in between. Wow. And it sits between your two ears, and that is the final frontier. And that really inspired me to study neuroscience. Yeah. And I ended up working in this particular professor's lab, Dr. Marion Diamond. She was fascinating. She dissected Einstein's brain back in the 80s. Wow. And she never believed in the term retirement. She believed in redirection. She didn't leave her office at the mandated age of 70. And she did these fascinating research studies. But uh that's where I kind of cut my teeth and had a real intention in pursuing this long term. I wanted to neuropsych and go on to grad school and eventually medicine. But sometimes you never know until you try.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

And so when I started grad school, I just had a recognition that the process wasn't for me. And I I really think that process is important. I I teach and I practice yoga now, and we always say in yoga that it's it's about the journey, not the destination.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

I've tried to do yoga. My my wife has made me try to do yoga and I embarrass myself. I mean, I'm the theory. She probably does it because she gets good comedic relief out of it. Yes. I did the hot yoga once, and I yeah, that was the last time I've done yoga. And I'm not flexible either. Like, I mean, which is probably not good, by the way. It's probably not good not to be flexible because I think as you get older like me, you need to be flexible. Are you old now? Yes. Oh, yes. There's no video here, so they can't see your 80-year-old frail body. Yeah, my receding hairline. I don't have my hat on today, just for you. And we're at if you hear the dog, by the way, I've already heard the dog. Maxine. Maxine, we're at the Roosevelt Library. It's a beautiful place. Um and we'll we'll let you kind of go into this history of this thing because it's it's something a lot of people probably don't know a lot about. But um, so how so going back to to traveling, where where have you all been? You went to Japan. Um, I got a chance to go there. It's an amazing place, by the way. Um, they do things so differently there, too. So, where else have you been around the world? Like, and what is your favorite place to go? The most interesting man in San Antonio. San Antonio, right? I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_03 12:11

I love calling San Antonio home. I was fortunate. So after I lived in that fishing village, uh-huh. Well, why did you live there, by the way? I wanted a place, my as I mentioned, my whole upbringing was so structured. Academia and athletics. I wanted a freeform learning environment where I could really just explore. Yeah. So I taught part-time to pay my way, did a lot of deep sea fishing, hiking, skiing. And then after that year and a half, I began to work for an NGO that was Tokyo-based. Uh-huh. NGO, what's an NGO for people? A non-governmental organization. Like a nonprofit. Gotcha. Gotcha, basically. And this NGO was really amazing because we traveled to development projects globally by ship.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Oh, that's what I did read that you were on a ship. Didn't you like travel on a ship for like a what kind of ship are you traveling on? It was a retired. It's not an oil ship, is it? Not an oil ship. We're pretty irrelevant, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

HMS Topez was her name since decommissioned. But I was able to circumnavigate the globe twice. Once this was a cruise ship, you said? It was a retired cruise ship that was then repurposed for our purposes for the NGO. Oh, really? That's kind of cool. That's a that's a way to do it. So I did two global voyages, central route once to the Suez and Panama Canal, and uh later a southern route around Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope, so the southern hemisphere. Yeah. And though I had grown up traveling even internationally, this type of travel was very different. And because we worked in these development projects, I mean everything from displaced Maasai people who have no concept of landownership in East Africa to Antarctic observatory missions, organic farming projects in New Zealand. And it just gave me this perspective on what I grew up understanding, the heritage from my family and my parents in India, to how much of the world lives. And it's there's really nothing like travel to kind of broaden your horizons and give you perspective and appreciation.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

So, where was your favorite place that you visited? Or you visited since it could be since. Because I see you traveling all the time. It's like this guy, I mean, is he ever here? Like, you know, I don't think you even live here.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

This is my avatar. I I don't know if I have a singular favorite place, but I have a lot of favorite places. So I'm a I'm a water scientist, so I love the beach. I love water.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Yeah. So your beach over mountain.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

It depends on the season. Yeah. I ski.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

So I love the mountain. These are the easy questions. Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

So I love Bali because Bali has this amazing combination of both. Yeah. And it's a magical place. I love the vastness, alien-like, you know, otherworldliness of the Antarctic. And yeah, I also like going to places that uh that Americans don't travel and people have negative perception and get to experience that. And but you know, that's kind of what we do through musical bridges. But uh yeah, I like uh I like exploring so off the beaten path. So do you go back to India at all? Or I went back to India for the first time last November in 18 years.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

Really? How is that? Because I think that's one place that kind of may, from an American perspective, get a not a negative, but like just overwhelming, at least what I watch on television, it's like just a lot of people. And it looks overwhelming to me. So is is that the perception correct? Or yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

It's a lot of people, but yeah, that's in any metropolitan area. There's a lot of sure. I always tell people before they go to India if they haven't traveled there before, just prepare to have all of your senses overwhelmed. Yeah, it's like Japan a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

Well, like down to like Tokyo, Japan.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

Japan is more organized, it's quiet there too. It's quiet. India is definitely more chaotic, yeah. But it's a very rich, colorful, yeah, vibrant, yeah, loud, vibrant, yeah. All the things.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

So when when you come back here after something like that uh and traveling for a while, what what did you see immediately or still see today that uh shocks you about San Antonio and and maybe even the US? Like, what do we not know? Like just living in our little bubble here in San Antonio and and in America? Like, what do you immediately go? Okay, this is so different when you when you get away from from our country and even San Antonio. The airports? No, just kidding. Yeah. Yeah, there are many places. We shouldn't talk about airports.

SPEAKER_03 16:55

Yeah. I just it's amazing. We live in this country that's so vast and so huge, and there's so much beauty in it. And because of that, I think the statistic is something like less than half of Americans have a passport. Wow, I didn't know that. So what that means is that most people are not traveling outside the country.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:20

And so this goes back to the passion behind the work that I do is when I go somewhere and you interact with people, I also like not interacting with people and going to nature. Sure, sure, sure. But when you are experiencing other cultures, it's just amazing to see the commonality. Even if the language is not the same, the culture is totally different, there are certain common threads that you see in people. And so oftentimes when I come back from places like Yemen or Cuba or Russia or Pakistan, and people have these really negative perceptions about these places, or if I'm in Iran or Iraq, and they're like, Wow, how would you go there? It's so dangerous. And the funny thing is, like when I was in Iraq, I'm talking to a guy at a food stall, and he's like, gosh, you're you live in America, you're Muslim. That's that's where they shoot the people in the movie theaters and the schools, right? Oh wow. Yeah. You're right, didn't you? Right. Yeah. And so that's their perception, their perception of us, the same way that people here who are like, oh my gosh, in Iraq, that's where like there's just a war all the time, right? So if I say Iraq, people think reaction is like Hussein and ISIS and all these things. And in fact, years ago, we brought Karim Wasfi, who's known as the Baghdad Cellist that Renee Montain had interviewed on MPR, and I met her in New York at the Lincoln Center Global Exchange, and we ended up talking about this and got his contact. We invited him here to San Antonio, and I asked that question. We had the mayor interview him at that time at Ron Nuremberg. Uh-huh. And I asked people's perception of Iraq. And then you had this guy sit and talk about like he was a conductor of the orchestra, he's a cellist. He would go out, he was known as a Baghdad celloist, so he'd go out into the street after bombings and like play his children. Really? And it's crazy. Yeah. But it's such a rich culture and country. And I visited Babylon and the Euphrates and Tigris. It's like the cradle of civilization, right? And so I think people, because we live on this 24-hour news cycle, and a lot of people aren't interested in ancient history or even sometimes recent history, that all they know and understand is kind of what they're fed. And so part of the work that we do, back to musical bridges, is we'll try to counter these stereotypes.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

So we'll have like an Israeli-Palestinian piano duo all day together.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:42

Or an Armenian visual artist paired with a Syrian clarinetist, or Ukrainian soprano with a St. Petersburg string quartet from Russia. Unlikely pairings that when people set foot in the concert hall, they think, you know, these people are fighting from all I know, and here they are, like creating this beautiful art. And then the common humanity resonates and you recognize the fact that this art, music, cuisine, food, transcend socioeconomics, politics, religion, all these divisive things that are created by humanity and amplified through the media. Because when you listen to it, that's most of what you hear. And so if you are not traveling, then you hear about these places, and all you hear is like that's a crazy place to go. Mm-hmm. When in actuality, millions of people live there just like they live here. Sure. And they have their problems just like we do.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

Sure. So so musical bridges, let me and I'm I'm going to understate this so that you can state it better than me. So your goal is to is it mainly bringing people here to to to play for San Antonio so that it opens up our minds to different types of music um from different parts of the world? Is that is that the goal?

SPEAKER_03 20:57

I mean, I know that's broad, but our mission is to celebrate our shared humanity through the arts. And we believe that excellence in the performing arts. So we bring in Grammy Award-winning, Van Kleiber, and Thaikovsky Rated Artist. We commission original work. And they're all from overseas, or they can't be able to do that. All over the world. They could be originally from overseas, but based in places in the US. A lot of our artists are based in New York, but they're it's kind of where their mailing address and they rest their head every once in a while, but they're always on the road, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:27

So that is really the mission. I mean, the goal is world peace, right? Our means to that is by helping people understand common humanity through the arts.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

So do you ever bring, okay, this is an interesting question, and I probably should have done a little bit more research on this. Do you ever bring anybody from San Antonio elsewhere, like our culture to other places?

SPEAKER_03 21:46

We talked about doing that through a State Department program, ECA, and this was a very common thing back when the State Department was funded. It you would take artists as they call it soft power, cultural diplomacy. Jazz, like the rest of the world thinks, oh my gosh, the US is so divided, and you know, we've had civil rights, and then all of a sudden, like you know, jazz music is permanently made by you know product in New Orleans, African American culture, like that was exported to show tours in Africa, tours in Europe, and like exported American jazz and something really rich that again music is that language that people are like, oh, this is American, and these are black folks making this, and like and they're sending them here as ambassadors of the country. Yeah, and that was a really, really powerful thing. So the State Department used to do programs like that, which I think were really beneficial. Our role is to enrich San Antonio. Gotcha. And so we work here in the community by bringing the world to San Antonio. Because if the statistic that I mentioned of less than half of Americans having passport, yeah, that number is much greater in San Antonio in terms of those that don't have, just because we're at a lower socioeconomic threshold. Sure. And if you go to some schools that are underserved, Title I, like kids are not leaving the neighborhood, much less a city side or country. They might not even know that we have an airport. Yeah. And so by bringing the world to them, I mean we had a girl, a little girl, I remember this was Colonies North on the school, there's a lot of refugee population that lives in that area, in that district. Some of the like 36 different languages are spoken in that school. Wow. We had a Syrian clarinetist doing a school concert there, and a little girl came up to him afterwards and said, Thank you for sharing my music with my friends.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Yeah, that's that's when you have the aha moment, I'm sure, I'm sure. So do you do you think there because I think bridges to me also goes the other direction. I I I've asked this question a couple of times of other people I've interviewed, and I interview it seems like I've gravitated toward arts, but do you see what is the misconception, and not maybe just San Antonio when because you're also bridging the gap when you go overseas for the misconception of us as Americans. And I guess what do you see the biggest? I mean, obviously, Texas is going to be cowboys and you know, the cowboy hats and horses running down the road, which we do see out here. But um, what do you see the biggest mix misconception, the one thing that you see a lot of about America?

SPEAKER_03 24:19

It probably goes both ways, but I think really less than the other way around. The the way that Americans perceive other nations, I think the people of other nations don't they separate American politics from Americans. And I think Americans don't do that so much about other places. From my you know, depending on I guess who you talk to. And I think that that's probably the major thing is that they like I'll give you an example. I was in Cuba and talking to a waitress asking about the situation. Like they're like, you know, we love Americans, like if you guys want to come here and sure and sure see our country and spend your dollars, yeah. It's not like an issue, they don't have an issue with the people. The embargo exists. I mean, that's between politicians. Yeah, like we don't have anything to do with it. Yeah, and so they don't hold that against me as a visitor just because my passport is blue.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

And so I feel like um that's probably I think that's also why a lot of people probably, and I didn't mean to cut you off, but I I think that's why a lot of people may not you know, you say 50% people have passports. I think you even have a less percent that actually are traveling on on a you know, especially a global scale. They may be going down to Mexico or Canada, like you said. And um, so I I think that we we've got to at some point kind of, like you said, bridge that gap of because having a global experience, I I know money is involved in that. You you have to have money to to have a global experience, but it's it's so important to understand, and I think a lot of people aren't traveling, especially now, um obviously cost, but then two is you know, the that we think we have a perception, like you just said in Cuba, that they don't like us. You know what I'm saying? Like it's like they they don't realize that our that, and this isn't a political statement, but our government is separated from who we are as as Americans, and we have our daily problems as well. So I think it's important that that if you can't ever travel globally or go see a concert, it's so vitally important to and I imagine uh for some of these people to be able to go up and talk to the artist afterwards to hear about where they're from and learn about it is is vitally important too, right?

SPEAKER_03 26:48

Yeah, I remember having a conversation. We went to dinner. We are we take the artist to dinner afterwards. We want to share the experience of San Antonio with them because they take a piece of that home. And it's amazing actually because we're in our we just closed our 28th season last night. Wow. And yeah, we had musicians here from Budapest, from Bratislava, from Brussels, Prague, and they've been here before. And so, in this community of amazing world musicians, like word gets round. And so it's not just they're coming here and uh a show and on the road, like they're staying at a home. Yeah, we're taking them to eat in the same places that we enjoy.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:25

Uh, not necessarily on the riverwalk, we love the riverwalk, sure. Just uh sure an experience that's going to be more like what we do, yeah again off the beaten path, so unique places, things that especially as second timers. And they take that home and they really share that message because we have a great global brand here with the Riverwalk, with the Alamo, with the Spurs, and those are known. I mean, the Spurs are known you go anywhere in the world. Yeah, yeah. People know the Spurs is amazing. Yeah, and and that's credit to Pop, like tapping into these markets, right? So, but beyond that, when people might not have a recognition of what the city has to offer, and we're such a rich cultural landscape with the first contemporary art museum in the state of Texas over the contemporary, the Blue Star, and the only UNESCO site in Texas with emissions and UNESCO creative gastronomy. So we've got all this stuff that's beyond what people know, and so they can come in and visit. And I like to carry that message when people might have the stereotype, oh, Texas Cowboy, great. Sure, sure. We've got that, but we also have this, and sometimes you come and experience that. But when you meet somebody that's from a place, it peaks interest. And I happens to me all the time when I travel and people are like, Oh, I'm from here, and this is great, and this is interesting. And like, I'd like to check that out because I'd never heard about it. Yeah. And in the business world and the nonprofit world, like perception is reality, right? It's like all comes down to marketing. Sure. So if our marketing about a place is 24-7, like violence, war, death, murder, yeah, it's probably not gonna seem so appealing.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:56

But if the marketing is like, okay, those things happen just like they happen everywhere else, but we've got this incredible cultural asset, we've got this natural landscape, we've got this amazing cuisine, and turns out people are friendly too. Sure. And that was my experience when I went to Iran. Yeah, it was amazing. Like I went on an architectural survey of the country and places like Isfahan and Shiraz and seeing the Towers of Silence and the Fire Temple and Molas taking Mudrasa, their kids, to these pre-Islamic sites, which kind of blew my mind because you think about the Taliban and what they did to Afghanistan, like blowing up these pre-Islamic Buddhist statues, which was a tragedy for history and for culture. And so I was I wasn't expecting that because I know that Iran has amazing cultural assets, but the fact that the mulas were taking the kids from an Islamic school to teach them, and that the the birthdays are the the days of dying of like Cyrus and Darius as a classicist, going to their tombs and having those be like nationally recognized days of heritage or holidays and no ruz, which is a way pre-Islamic like harvest feast. And it I feel like I'm relatively educated. I have friends from Iran, but these are things that I never knew. And not until I set foot on the ground, talk to people, experience them, witness them with my own eyes, that how strong the ministry of culture is there to preserve these assets for the people. And it's like they say in the West, they discover a new Persian poet every hundred years, like right now we're on the Rumi. Uh, but I mean, the richness of and the education of the population is also second to none. I mean, Israel, I think, has a universally pretty educated population. I haven't seen it anywhere else in the Middle East like I have in Iran.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:33

And that was just amazing to see this productive society that's out 11 o'clock at night with families and like these Issikias running through the streets. And just it was like amazing.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

So where do you see uh the deficiencies in art? I mean, we obviously uh see a federal um funding issue going on with arts globally, nationally. Um where do you see more specifically in San Antonio we struggle?

SPEAKER_03 31:04

I'll start with some of our strengths because I think we're very fortunate to have a Department of Arts and Culture. And I've served as a commissioner as a mayoral appointee for about a dozen years under three mayors. And not every city has that. Yeah. And we're fortunate to have that support from our city. The deficit is unlike other major cities, we don't have a huge number of corporate headquarters. Yeah. And the corporate headquarters that we do have, like HEB, we've got Valera, New Star, and uh some others, are pulled on by everyone. Sure. And being because they have to fund all the different things, not just exactly. And being a relatively poor city, what comes first? Food insecurity, sure, social issues, you know, shelter and food. If you don't have those, like what's the point of anything else? Yeah. Right. But we again believe arts is a must. It's not a luxury and it's important for a city to thrive. And I'll never forget the Tracy Wolf told me the story that when she and Nelson were going to try to recruit Ed Whitaker to bring ATT here.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:11

The first question he asked is, Do you have a symphony? And I've never seen Ed one to the symphony. I honestly don't know if he gives a damn about classical music. Yeah. But to him, that was a metric. Sure. That if you've got a functioning orchestra, then your health and wellness, your urban planning, your uh education, all of those are probably in order. Yeah. Because you've got this. Yeah. And if you're bringing a Fortune 500 company here with a C-suite executives and their families, you want to make sure all of those parts because that's part of what's going to keep them here in a thriving community for them to want to live and make that headquarters. So that's a very important. The cultural component is very, very important for being a thriving city that where a company, when you talk about economic development, wants to even be.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Do you think creativity, because I know education is something I talk a lot about. Do you think because I I've said this a couple of times, creativity is creation. It's it's kind of what we've been built here to do, is to create. And arts is a piece of that. But I think our education may miss that piece, is that it's arts is not just arts, it's creating. It's learning to create. And where do you see that in the education system, maybe not just in San Antonio, but in the U.S. in general?

SPEAKER_03 33:30

It's the biggest tragedy that we have, I believe, is when funding is cut from schools, when the first thing to go is art. That is a disservice. And so again, going back to how we address that at musical bridges, we use art as a vehicle for education of core curricula. Like we started with concerts in the schools, and they were like, oh, that's great, but we've got to work on these tests. And so it became social studies, geography, and then eventually, working with UTSA and our partners of professional curriculum writers, we use these as vehicles for education, which help increase test scores. So we believe in arts for art's sake, but you've got to funders, to government, to superintendents, you've got to prove what the metrics are. So we know it's important. So when you teach a child, when you expose a child rather to art to creative opportunities of thinking, that problem solving carries forward. And it's not it doesn't matter if they're a musician or artist. That's not the point. Yeah. The point is they develop at a young age problem solving skills through creativity, which will allow them to be a better engineer, accountant, lawyer, whatever the doctor of their field is, right? Professional endeavor. Just to think creatively. Yeah. And you're right, it is creation. And so to have that at a young age, problem solving done through the like the modules that we teach, we've really harnessed that is uh is very important.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

So do you where do you see this going? Like musical bridges, arts in San Antonio. Do you see it's can do you see it going downward or upward right now, the trajectory? I would say upward. So an optimist.

SPEAKER_03 35:05

I'm an optimist. I'm an optimist. Now you'll hear all kinds of negative things in the media about you know our symphony. Didn't it just gone, right? The San Antonio Symphony is no longer. Many of the performers were part of another organization called San Antonio Philharmonic, which is still around. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they've got a couple concerts going on. And there may be potentially another entity in the future. And then we have an orchestra at the Tobin Center. Yeah. Um, that was a classical music institute, now the Orchestra of San Antonio, which performs for the ballet and the opera. So we've got a a couple things that are going on, and time will tell. And I believe the importance is to serve the community. Yeah. Right. For us, everything we did was very organic. We were invited into the church by Father David. Yeah. We're asked to share musicians with the schools and then the senior centers and then do military programming for victims of PTSD. So I think if you really put your ear to the ground and listen to what the needs of the community are and how you can improve the situation, then you'll be successful.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:10

But coming and saying opposing is not always the best way to go. So the future, we again have a great leadership at the Department of Arts and Culture. We have an amazing public art program. I mean, you look around and that's a partnership. Like it's with the city, public art, UC Centro, San Antonio. I completed my service on the board there, full disclosure. But I think that we have a very strong program with art everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:35

Yeah. That Andy Rodriguez, we've got this history of the Contemporary being the first contemporary art museum in the state. We've got these heritage trails with UNESCO and the missions. And as we harness our energy around those assets, both as a community and to share that with our visitors and tell the story of San Antonio, I think we will be stronger for it. And with that, of course, when you talk about economic development and returns, when our partners that visit San Antonio talk about heads and beds. Yeah. So the more people you have coming to visit that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

We're going to get paid for a stadium too.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

We've got that coming up. And you increase that revenue, which helps the department, which is funded through that hot money hotel occupancy tax. That's where the money comes from. And so it uplifts everyone the more that we share that story of those assets. So there have been challenges. We had a cut from the federal government. Sure. As an organization, we had a grant in for our big international music festival from the National Department for the Arts. For 100 grand, we received zero. Wow. But that's not unusual for our situation. And we don't rely on federal support. Yeah. But it still hurts. It still hurts. Yeah. And so when we want to do things, we have to make them up in other ways. But I think back to creative problem solving and thinking, you got to be adaptable and really be able to pivot. We did it during the pandemic and we continue to do it today. And so the art organizations that continue to adapt will thrive. And I'm optimistic.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

So uh I was curious um how, and let me know if we need to, we're we're actually doing dinner here tonight. And I don't want to if we need to move out of here. Thank you for inviting me, by the way. I'll try to behave. Hope you're hungry. I'll be the I'll be the guy sitting in the corner. You have to put your clothes back on for that. I'll try. They said, look, I dressed up. I read the whole directions. I didn't wear my hat. I got a suit on. Y'all should see this. It's it's pretty crazy. We'll take we can we take a picture? I said we said we can't take pictures in here.

SPEAKER_03 38:28

We can because we're doing this in a close environment, but not during the dinner. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

I'll get your hands flat. I'll be the one. Well, that's the whole story that uh when I worked for the Spurs with Pop, he hated cameras in the in the when we were doing any type of meeting, so which I understand. But um so musical bridges, I guess, and then we'll we'll kind of start wrapping up a little bit. How does it get its funding? Because that's important for our listeners to know. Is it mainly sponsorship? Is it butts in the seats? Is it uh I'm imagining it's it's sponsors and donors, right? Is the the majority of how you fund this, right?

SPEAKER_03 39:04

All of it, okay. What I failed to mention earlier is when we believe that in sharing our shared humanity through the arts, we uh lower the accessibility, like the the barriers. Yeah. And our board voted years ago that in order to truly remove that barrier, yeah, you have to be free. Yeah. And again, in a poor city, like even if you have like a suggested donation of five dollars, that makes people feel like if they can't get five dollars, they're not welcome.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:38

And that's what we found. So when we're in the San Fernando Cathedral, yeah, you have people that are highest level donors and patrons next to school kids that come for credit, downtown residents, visitors, sometimes the unhoused. Because what other opportunity would they have to hear this uplifting together?

SPEAKER_00 39:52

So it's free to get in to the everything that we do publicly is free. Okay, awesome.

SPEAKER_03 39:56

We have our military program, we've got our festival, our international piano competition, we've got our ongoing series musical evenings at San Fernando and Stable Hall. Everything is totally free. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:08

You've never invited me to one, by the way. I'm just saying. Yeah, well, we'll have to change that. And I think you've you've had like I feel obligated to. I don't get out much, to be honest.

SPEAKER_03 40:18

We had a packed house at Stable Hall yesterday, standing room only, and it was amazing. But to go back to your question, the Department of Arts and Culture, we have an operational grant that supports us from the city, from the city. Yeah. Texas Commission on the Arts, again, we used to receive NEA support, so that's kind of public monies. And then there are foundations like the Kronkowski Foundation here in San Antonio, the Brown Foundation, the San Antonio Area Foundation. And then aside from that support, we also have sponsorships, so underwriting for certain events.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:50

And uh then we have membership series. So we have one here at the Reservette Library, we have another one that takes place at beautiful homes and menus for different tiers of donors, and we get to have an intimate experience, either brunch or dinner, with the artists, yeah, and a performance before they go public.

SPEAKER_02 41:03

Yeah. So so I was driving in, and we'll we'll we'll switch this really quickly. I'm changing gears, and I know you're not probably the uh grand speaker of the Roosevelt Library, but explain what because we were I was driving in and I was thinking, and this is two questions. Uh my mind goes all over the place. I saw uh what is it? Is it Lone Star? Is that right? Lone Star. It's still just dead. Like because they were trying to revivalize that a long time ago, and then that just kind of stopped, right? Because we're right next to the Lone Star, basically, and we're right down the road from them.

SPEAKER_03 41:36

Did it just stop it changed hand a couple times? I think Aqualand had it, and then now then there's a partnership, and I believe it's there's rumblings again. I think I remember reading something. I can't give you specifics. Sure, sure, sure. Don't quote me, but it's an exciting opportunity. Yeah, twice the size of the Pearl. I think it's like yeah, that's like 35 acres of 70.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

It's just a city. I mean, it's it's a big, big area over there.

SPEAKER_03 41:57

So I think it's a huge opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 41:59

It's actually uh going by it. I was thinking how I know it kind of sounds weird how pretty it was, even though it's run down, but how architect. To make a movie. I I was thinking that would be a great place to shoot something there. Because I mean it's or someone or something, mainly me. There's a lot of people. Okay, that's a joke, folks. Um, so what we're we're in the Roosevelt Library. It explained it's been a while since the last time I was here, there was a chicken. Um Charlie's chicken. Charlie Chicken's no longer here. We got the dog now. But what is it? What what what do we do here? What do we for people that don't because a lot of people don't know this exist? Uh what is it?

SPEAKER_03 42:37

This was a historic library built in 1929. Roosevelt trained as rough riders in the park. That's why it's reserved. Is that over the right to our right here? Okay. And uh it was a library and then it served as a the Fire and Police Pension Fund for years back in the 80s.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

Oh, is that is that why there's some stuff up here? Maybe I'm no, that's more army stuff, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:56

This is actually the owner Leland's father's decorations from his military service. But then it sat in disrepair for many years. And the current owner Leland Stone acquired it back in 2013 and did a masterful restoration. Yeah, it's beautiful, and just kind of cleared out a lot of the stuff from the pension fund days, the cubicles, the drywall, the storage that was a lower level, which was not original, put in during the pension fund times.

SPEAKER_02 43:21

That's where the fun happens down there. There's some parties that go. That's what I really want to know.

SPEAKER_03 43:25

The stories about yeah, it's it's it's a magnificent space. So, like there's a dinner club that meets every other Monday, like tonight. Yeah, and then it's available for weddings, ba mitzvahs, anniversaries. There's been wakes here, like you name it. I mean, yeah, there's been llamas, camels. You dream it, it'll happen. And the grounds are great.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

What's the strangest thing you've seen here besides the chicken? Can you that you can say? I think I stopped him finally.

SPEAKER_03 43:51

We did a the Villa Finale had a helmet uh helmets that were collected by Walter Mathis on View. Those were the days of Charlie the Chicken, I think. And they were on display downstairs. We did a done fashion shows, moved out that big table. We had uh the Maharaja themed dinner that was a benefit for I think the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, where we had a a young dancer that was a Maharaja and everybody give gifts during the dinner, which were kind of as donations, like all kinds of bizarre, fantastic things. We a friend of mine had his birthday party that was themed Sinners and Saints here like two weeks ago. That's the party you want to be at. Leland's birthday was uh a Victorian thing. That's another party that you want to be at. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

So it's just, I mean, it's it's a it's a it's it's I I I hate to say strange environment, but it is so different, maybe is the right word. It is just so different here. And it's in in the middle of everything, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:48

Like you don't realize it's and you could pass by this and not even know it's and people do all the time, and then when they come in here, they're like, wow, because Leland has curated and restored the place in such a magnificent fashion that it almost feels other timely, like you're stepping back in time. And as you'll see with dinner tonight, one of the tenets of the club is the art of conversation. Uh-huh. And technology is forbidden, smartwatches, yeah. I saw that. And the idea is that we're sitting at a common table next to maybe friends, strangers, members, sure, their guests. And the carousel of flags you see behind you on your right, that represents where people in the club were born. Oh, really? So it's a very eclectic group of people who are the chief diplomat for the city, the honorary members, like the former county judge and mayor. We've got people that are in law, engineering, nonprofits, arts. And so we have this thing called the moment that is the interlude for five minutes between the cocktail hour and the seated dinner. And that's kind of my creation that I thought we have all these wonderful people from across our community and their guests. And I work in the art space, so why not have an artistic moment where we can allow somebody for five minutes to share their craft to inspire people for the art of conversation? Yeah. And so we've had opera singers, musicians, venters, bootmakers, photographers, you name it, tonight is a poet. Yeah. Ryan Magalia Holland.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:08

And he's a PhD chief impact officer for the Area Foundation, but a poet in his own right and an author. And so he's going to be sharing his poetry this evening.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

That's really cool. And I think it, I think, and I won't go on off a tangent here, but I think putting the phones down in our not just it's just uh I've been to several concerts and comedy shows recently, and and they they do that now. And I think it's it we don't enjoy the moment if if you're sitting there taking because it is a beautiful environment, and you just I I imagine you would just have people taking pictures on their phone all the time, and you're not enjoying what's happening around you.

SPEAKER_03 46:46

Even even moreover, it's like you feel a buzz or you get a call, you get distracted, it breaks the conversation. Yeah, right. So even if you're referring to it for information or for a picture, like when you do that, then somebody else is not engaged and they do the same thing. They just because and I see that happen in out in the world. And so what it does, if you don't think of something and you can't look it up, you know, you reflect on it, and okay, maybe use your memory.

SPEAKER_02 47:13

Exactly. Exactly. It's not all it's it's a tough world because everything's social media to to actually show that this is here, but also be very mindful of the moment, you know.

SPEAKER_03 47:22

Right. And so that's the club. Yeah, we observe that here during that time. But there are all kinds of other events here. People can rent the space. I recently launched a series called Midday Musings. Uh-huh. And I chair the speakers bureau for the Harvard Business School Alumni Club here. And so we meet every first Tuesday of the month at the petroleum club. But not everybody can make breakfast and speakers aren't always available. So I said, Well, we have this beautiful space, and I'm the chairman of the board here. So I thought, why don't we start a lunch series where we can partner with the HBS school and bring in speakers? So we've had RC Buford, we've had Catherine Nixon Cook, an author with David Lesh. We've had Sook Carr, our district councilwoman. Tomorrow, we have Eric Walsh, who's our city manager. And these are totally open to the public. Anybody can go online and come to lunch.

SPEAKER_02 48:09

Yeah. So we'll get to that piece in just one second and I'm going to let you out of here because I know you got to go make your rounds. I'm here for you. I'm all yours. He's he's giving me the high sign, I think. He's like, I gotta get out of here. I gotta go get a drink and and I gotta go get a drink because I my energy level is gonna be sinking here in a minute. But so so what uh I always like to end this, uh, and I'll I'll give you a chance to also tell us where we can go find musical bridges and and and the Roosevelt Library, but what is your purpose? What is your purpose here? This is the longest pause I've gotten out of him. Yeah, he's never been asked this question. I haven't and I love it.

SPEAKER_03 48:55

I believe that if we leave the place we came to, better off. Yeah. That that's a positive interaction with the earth during our time here. And I aim to enhance every interaction that I have with with a space, with a person, with a creature, and share what I've learned and get people excited about experiences that whether I facilitate them or I'm part of them, that as long as we uplift people, I think we're making the world a better place. Yeah. And we should be cognizant of the challenges and we should be aware of the conflict. But we always have to be looking forward. Yeah. And I think when we do that, we make our own lives better and those of us around us.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

Yeah. That's great. And I think if you ever if you ever meet Sue Hill out, he just has a peaceful way about him. A very calming force. You're like before the storm, before before the party starts. Well, how do we get to uh to look up musical bridges and everything that's going on there? And also, since we are here at the lovely Roosevelt Library, how do we how do we get information about that?

SPEAKER_03 50:14

So musical bridges around the world were on all the socials, but we're really promoting our YouTube channel right now. And pre-pandemic, we were only live performance. Yeah. During the pandemic, we discovered the internet could take our programming around the world, which was very cool. And we thought, why stop post-pandemic? We did return to live performances, but now we record those and we push them out to the globe. And we've got like 15,000 followers on subscribers on YouTube, but we have videos that have gone viral, and some of them have upwards of five million views. Wow. And you look at the comments, and it's really interesting because there's not even five million people in San Antonio, right? So like there are people that are commenting in in Bulgarian, in Chinese, and Portuguese, and Spanish, and it's just amazing to see the engagement that now you were asking earlier about taking San Antonio out. And so through this channel, we get to share this experience, and we know that people are watching and engaging with that content. So they're getting to experience the beauty of, say, San Fernando Cathedral or Stable Hall, of the programming that we do here, the artists that don't live here, but are sharing that. And so I've been having talks with people, and we're, you know, we're always thinking about the future, about maybe even taking that to a next level in terms of a channel and the the music space.

SPEAKER_02 51:30

So on you on YouTube, you just musical bridges around the world. Musical bridges around the world. Okay. Or on Instagram. Follow Sue Hale too. He's got a quite a life that he lives. I love you know, James. I used to I used to journal as a kid, and I stopped doing that in college. I mean, I look at your social media, I am jealous all the time. I I turn to my wife and I'm like, look at this guy. I mean, he's in some beach town while I'm sitting here, you know, at 115 degrees, you know. It's my late, my later gram. But my later gram.

SPEAKER_03 52:03

But uh it's I used to journal as a kid, and then I stopped in college. And my brother, when he was in college in Boston, was like, Oh, you gotta do this Facebook thing. And I said, Look, I can't even keep up with the email, man. I'm not a tech person. He goes, No, this is how we stay connected to all of these cousins that we have abroad, our family, who's having a baby, who's getting married, you know, who's doing what. And it's very passive. It's not like email where you're supposed to respond. And he goes, I'll put you on it. He set up an account for me. And so it was amazing because we we live in this very connected world, and through social media, I can share something if I'm like, say, skiing Breckenridge and I have a friend, like, oh, I'm on the slopes too. Like, let's opera ski. And or if you're in some other place and you share something, or people who were not part of the experience, even your own community, yeah, get a glimpse into it and they're like, oh, I'm interested in that. And they get to experience it because of that engagement. And so it's a really cool thing. So now I kind of use Instagram, pushes to Facebook, but it's sort of like my daily photo blog of what I thought was significant from that day that I can share and put out there that uh people can like see what I'm up to if they're friends that are or family across the globe, or people here that like think something cool's happening and want to figure out how they can maybe support or participate in it too.

SPEAKER_02 53:18

Sure. And then Roosevelt Library, is it just rooseveltlibrary.com? I think you can search it. People search it. Roosevelt Library San Antonio, yeah, and you'll find it.

SPEAKER_03 53:27

And in these programs, the club is a membership club that we're here for tonight, but pretty much everything else that's not a private event is available. So people can come to the midday musings with Eric Walsh and meet the city manager tomorrow. They're very intimate bunches. Uh, there are events that take place here, all kinds of things you can come in and see the space and walk through. And so we actually are pushing more on social media now to make sure that we are a hidden gem, but also to make more people available that this is uh a place for you, also if you want to come check it out.

SPEAKER_02 53:55

Yeah, awesome. Well, thanks for your time uh today. I know we we're we're gonna go eat dinner, and I do appreciate you doing this. Um, we we uh and getting me out in a my wife will be very proud that you got me in a suit and and I don't know that I'm dressed properly because she wasn't at home, so we you may have to check me on the way out here. But uh thanks again for your time. I really appreciate it. I know you're very busy, and and to do this for us is is is really cool. So thanks.

SPEAKER_03 54:21

I appreciate you having me on the show.

SPEAKER_02 54:22

Awesome. All right, everybody.

SPEAKER_03 54:24

Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_02 54:25

Peace out.