The MacArthur Foundation has never attached the word “genius” to its annual grants to exemplary scientists, scholars, researchers, writers, artists, composers and other creative Americans. The term “genius award” seems to have sprung up in the news media soon after the first grants were given, in 1981, and the nickname has stuck. The program simply provides a fellowship, with recipients (some 20 to 40 each year) receiving $500,000 each, no strings attached, paid in quarterly installments over five years.  Who is a certifiable genius? What exactly does that mean? Though the term is invoked in the arts probably more than in any of the other fields from which the MacArthur Foundation chooses fellows, you could argue that defining genius is a more elusive proposition in the arts than in the sciences. There are accepted protocols to certify that a physicist’s research has broken new ground and has advanced understanding. Not in the arts. So what might the foundation be looking for when it evaluates musical accomplishment and potential?  I raised the question in separate telephone interviews with 2 of the 22 new MacArthur Foundation Fellows announced last month, the only recipients to come from classical music, and both New Yorkers.  One is the cellist Alisa Weilerstein, 29, an exciting and adventurous performer. She played with her parents, the violinist Donald Weilerstein and the pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, as the Weilerstein Trio at Bargemusic on Friday, a concert that was at first canceled when a Fire Department official determined that an exit gangway on the barge was faulty, then reinstated at the last minute when the problem was fixed. Ms. Weilerstein’s debut recording next year as a Decca artist will present her in Elgar’s Cello Concerto, bracingly paired with Elliott Carter’s Cello Concerto (2000), with Daniel Barenboim conducting the Berlin Staatskapelle.  The other fellow from the classical music sphere is Francisco J. Núñez, 46, the founding director of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, which has introduced children from wide-ranging ethnic and economic backgrounds to the joy and discipline of choral singing. Some 1,200 children participate in the group’s programs and tours each year. For the last decade, through the group’s Transient Glory project, Mr. Núñez has commissioned diverse composers, including major figures, to write works for children’s chorus.  There was much to discuss with Mr. Núñez and Ms. Weilerstein, but I could not resist teasing them a bit about their new genius status.  “No, no, I don’t really feel like a genius,” Mr. Núñez said. “But I definitely feel a little taller.” Fair enough. But on its Web site, the understandably proud Young People’s Chorus does have a prominent news item announcing that Mr. Núñez received a “prestigious 2011 MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellowship Award.”  The foundation provides fellows with talking points for frequently asked questions, Ms. Weilerstein said. And sure enough, the question most asked is, “Do you feel like a genius?” One of the suggested answers resonated with Ms. Weilerstein’s opinion that the term actually “limits the scope” of an artist’s achievement.  “Obviously there is natural talent,” she said. “But you accomplish things only by working extremely hard.” The word genius suggests that an artist need only slip into genius mode and out comes the finished product. “Also,” Ms. Weilerstein added, “the award recognizes that our work isn’t done. I’m a perpetual student.”  The foundation, in a news release, states that the fellowships are given in recognition of a recipient’s “originality, self-direction and capacity to contribute importantly to society.” Among the artists in classical music who have received these fellowships in recent years, several common threads emerge.  There are the musicians who cross genres and styles and break down categories; the performers who champion contemporary music; and those artists who excel at communicating with audiences and bringing music to people who have been left out of the cultural loop, especially in poor neighborhoods.  The composer John Zorn, a 2006 fellow, who has drawn from jazz, punk, klezmer, film, cartoon and classical styles, was cited for music “that defies convention and explores the spaces between and among genres.” The dynamic violinist Leila Josefowicz, a 2008 fellow, was hailed for “stretching the mold of the classical violinist in her passionate advocacy of contemporary composers and their work.”
The cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the childrenâs choral conductor Francisco J. NÃºÃ±ez take a deep breath and discuss what the MacArthur fellowship means to them.