About the Author

Daniel Levin is a contemporary artist and documentary photographer whose works primarily address sociological issues, and is a tenured Associate Professor of Photography at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio. Levin's works include Amnon Weinstein: The Luthier who Returned the Violins of the Holocaust to the Living, Perspectives Examined via the site-specific Camera Obscura, Organizational Successes and Failures of Post-Katrina Mississippi, Fatherhood, Walls as Metaphor for Divided Philosophies, and an art film exploring the birth of the creative thought entitled The Root: From Dishes to Synapses. His film To The Contrary, which celebrates the beauties of the mundane in a tumultuous world through high-speed HD cinematography, premiered in 2020 at Spaces Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio. Levin has been commissioned to make portraits of many well-known figures around the globe, including First Lady Barbara Bush and President George H. W. Bush, architect I. M. Pei and actor Martin Sheen, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, violinists Joshua Bell and Gil Shaham and musician Idan Raichel, magazine magnate Jann Wenner and Governor Mario Cuomo, iconic civil rights photographer Matt Herron and U.S. Senator and astronaut John Glenn. He resides in Cleveland Heights, and his Website is levinphoto.com.

About the Contributor

Franz Welser-Möst, a violinist from Austria who studied under the composer Balduin Sulzer, is among today's most distinguished conductors. Since 2002, he has been Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, which The New York Times has declared "the Cleveland," under Welser-Möst's direction, to be the "best American orchestra" for its virtuosity, elegance of sound, variety of color, and chamber-like musical cohesion. As a guest conductor, Welser-Möst regularly conducts the Vienna Philharmonic and has served as General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera (2010 to 2014) and the Zurich Opera (2005–2008). In 2019, Mr. Welser-Möst was awarded the Gold Medal in the Arts by the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts in recognition of his long-lasting impact on the international arts community.