Creativity Quote by Barbara Cook

Barbara Cook’s delight here is doing double duty: it’s genuine show-business giddiness, and it’s a quiet victory lap for an artist who spent years being underestimated. The setup is pure backstage candor: a New Year’s Eve concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Symphony Hall carries the glow of institutional prestige, the kind that can sanctify a performer as “serious” in the public imagination. Cook doesn’t posture as if she belongs there by default. She leans into the pleasure of being chosen: “of all the people they could have had, they wanted me!” That line isn’t just humility; it’s a reveal. For singers who came up through Broadway and cabaret, the classical world has often been a gated community, welcoming the voice but doubting the credentials.

The subtext is about legitimacy and the complicated hierarchy inside American music. Cook frames the invitation as both honor and surprise, hinting at how narrow the definition of “worthy” can be when orchestras court crossover events. Her exclamation marks aren’t decorative; they’re the sound of a performer hearing her own name echoed back by a cultural establishment.

Then comes the sly, working pro’s pivot: “We do have to do a little work with the rhythm section.” It’s a light joke with sharp teeth. Orchestras can swing, but not automatically; Broadway phrasing lives and dies on pocket, breath, and snap. Cook signals she’s not there to be embalmed in symphonic grandeur. She’s bringing her idiom with her, and she intends to make the institution meet her halfway.