John Edward Hasse

Dr. John Edward Hasse is a Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution, acclaimed Duke Ellington biographer, Grammy-nominated producer, and one of America’s foremost music historian-educators. During his 33-year tenure at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, he curated major exhibitions on Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Ray Charles, and founded both the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and international Jazz Appreciation Month, now celebrated in all 50 states and 40 countries.

Leadership Lessons from the Jazz Masters

What sets Hasse apart as a speaker is his unique ability to draw powerful leadership and creativity lessons from the lives of jazz masters. With a business education from Wharton and marketing management experience at Procter and Gamble, he bridges the arts and business worlds seamlessly. His keynotes reveal how Louis Armstrong revolutionized an old craft, how Duke Ellington mastered finding and retaining individual talent, and how Miles Davis continually reinvented himself. He plays piano on stage to demonstrate key points, creating an unforgettable multisensory experience.

A Cultural Diplomat and Award-Winning Author

Hasse has lectured on leadership, the arts, and music in 20 countries on six continents as a cultural diplomat for the U.S. State Department. His acclaimed biography Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington features a foreword by Wynton Marsalis. He has earned two Grammy nominations, two ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards for excellence in music writing, and has been named a Legend of Jazz Education. His presentations at organizations ranging from Harvard University to the Cleveland Clinic to the World Bank demonstrate that the principles of creative collaboration in jazz apply powerfully to every field.

Leadership Lessons from the Jazz Masters

In today’s swiftly changing business environment, success is captured by the masters of innovation: those who find creative ways to lead, address challenges, and sprint to the head of the pack. The lives of the great jazz masters are rich with lessons that can teach us how.

Because improvisation is the heart and soul of their art, jazz musicians are among the most consistently creative professionals of our time. In improvising their music night after night on the bandstand, they take calculated risks to produce creative results. And the musicians must be ever-resilient in the moment and over time: this music’s history has been about inventing and accommodating rapid change.

In a well-illustrated presentation, Smithsonian curator, author, jazz pianist, and NPR commentator John Edward Hasse shares secrets from the lives of jazz masters that can inspire and benefit people in business.

You will learn:

How the jazz musician’s art – rehearsing, jamming, improvising, and keeping things fresh – can be applied to business

How, as a young man, Louis Armstrong revolutionized American music and taught everyone new ways of practicing an old craft

How Duke Ellington developed his secrets for finding, stimulating and retaining individual talent

How Ellington’s affirmation of diversity can inspire today’s business leaders

How Miles Davis continually reinvented himself as an artist throughout his career

How Miles dealt with major change in and out of the workplace

How Miles taught – and learned from – the young people he hired

How Ella Fitzgerald successfully navigated major changes in public taste

How the most brilliant jazz masters have thought “outside the box” and created new paradigms

God Bless America: American Songs of Patriotism

Music commands a unique ability to stir our deepest emotions, to comfort us in times of grief, to express our deeply held values, and to bind us together in shared experiences. American songs of patriotism poignantly express our indomitable national spirit. Our patriotic songs suffuse us with love of country, with the pride of a nation, with reverent gratitude, and with hope.

Take a fascinating and moving tour of America’s best, most celebrated patriotic music with Dr. John Edward Hasse, curator of American music at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (home of one of America’s greatest symbols, the world-famous Star-Spangled Banner flag).

You’ll hear definitive recordings of such all-American pieces as “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “America,” “America the Beautiful,” “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” and Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” Accompanied by colorful slide images, Hasse present the stories behind these beloved and meaningful songs. You’ll find out, for example, which anthem was originally a drinking song; which song initially created a scandal because it was considered unpatriotic; and which of these songs was written in direct opposition, in fact as an antidote, to another?

The hour crescendos with Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” to which everyone is invited to sing along. You’ll leave American Songs of Patriotism with a heightened appreciation of the power of song in expressing what is beautiful and great about the United States of America.

Ragtime, Blues & Jazz: A Piano Concert with Commentary

Pianist and lecturer Dr. John Edward Hasse takes you on a concert tour through six decades of jazz, from Scott Joplin through Herbie Hancock. The diverse selections you’ll hear in this program span the beginnings of jazz through blues, boogie-woogie, ballads, swing, soul jazz, and modern jazz.

You’ll be treated to the following and more!

The virtuosity of Scott Joplin’s celebrated “Maple Leaf Rag”

The down-home licks of W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues”

The rollicking strains of boogie-woogie

The infectious melodies of Fats Waller

Hoagy Carmichael’s romantic “Stardust”

George Gershwin’s gorgeous lullaby “Summertime”

“Standards” by Duke Ellington

The finger-snapping, gospel-infused “Moanin'”

Herbie Hancock’s rockin’ “Watermelon Man”

Dr. Hasse provides a lively running commentary while enriching the musical experience with dozens of colorful slides. Your audience will find themselves swept up in a concert event that’s unlike any they’ve attended – at once informative and movingly entertaining. This one is a toe-tapper!

Imagine a World Without Art: Why We Need the Arts More Than Ever

Imagine a world with no art. No movies, no plays, no theater, no poetry, no novels, and no music. So difficult is it to imagine a world bereft of art, it’s nearly inconceivable. That’s because the arts give so much meaning to our lives. As clean air and water are to the human body, art is to the human spirit. Art feeds our souls, expresses our creativity, stimulates our imaginations, and inspires us to reach for excellence.

In this stimulating presentation, Dr. John Edward Hasse of the Smithsonian Institution lays out an invigorating and compelling case for why, more than ever before, we need the arts in our lives. For example: the arts embody the human imagination, record human achievement, and, along with language and higher reasoning, distinguish us as a species from the rest of the animal kingdom. We humans form communities and cultures by making art: poems and paintings, drama and dance, sculpture, stories, and songs. The arts form links from people to people, culture to culture, and age to age. And, if the arts are vital to the lives of adults, they are especially critical in teaching our children.

Dr. Hasse offers an emotionally engaging, wonderfully dynamic presentation that includes:

Moving audio-dialogue from “Hamlet” and The Grapes of Wrath

Tributes to Van Gogh and Charlie Chaplin

A sample of “The Nutcracker” ballet

Poetry by Emily Dickinson

Excerpts from Bizet’s opera “Carmen” and “Beethoven’s 9th Symphony”

Ella Fitzgerald singing Gershwin and Judy Garland doing “Over the Rainbow”

Duke Ellington’s infectious “Take the ‘A’ Train” and part of a soaring Louis Armstrong trumpet solo that will lift you right out of your seat

A piano solo from Dr. Hasse himself – a solo that never fails to move his audiences

The Triumph of American Music

Everywhere you go in the world, you hear American music. You can hear the twangy chords of country music in the hamlets of Ireland, the hypnotic beat of rock on the streets of Singapore, Gershwin sung in a Copenhagen cabaret, and jazz insinuating itself into a warm Moroccan night. American music is one of the hottest things to leave our shores, becoming among our most pervasive and sought-after exports – more so than American art, theater, dance, or literature.

Just why is American music so resoundingly popular? So uniquely compelling to peoples the world over? Dr. John Edward Hasse, Curator of American Music at the Smithsonian Institution and author of several books on music, answers these and other questions.

The Triumph of American Music is richly illustrated with timeless recordings. You’ll enjoy the music of John Philip Sousa, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein. You’ll hear William Warfield singing the majestic “Ol’ Man River,” Ella Fitzgerald interpreting “Irving Berlin,” Frank Sinatra doing Hoagy Carmichael’s romantic “Stardust,” as well as Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, and other great music makers.

You’ll hear and learn about the highlights of our music. You’ll be filled with appreciation for the all-American geniuses who gave us our best symphonies and our finest songs. American music boasts a truly extraordinary vitality, vibrancy, elasticity, and expressiveness. It’s one of the great things about our country. Ours is a music born of freedom, the sound of which is unlike any other. It is unique, for truly nobody makes music like Americans do.