The culture secretary, Chris Smith, called it "a beautiful work of art", and a perfect example of his abiding principles of excellence and access in the arts.
One senses that Levinson may be addressing doubters in his own camp when he insists that far from threatening excellence, widening access should actually increase it.
After race was barred as a consideration in admissions, the university system experienced a sharp decline in the number of minority students, and officials have grappled with how to balance educational excellence with access to the system.
Without new talent and adequate funding, the arts simply won't deliver the outputs of excellence, inspiration, access for all and the financial benefits – jobs, exports, taxes, international reputation and so on – that our society depends upon.
Governments and the private and public sectors must now accept a shared responsibility to develop models that foster creative collaboration, not divisive competition; make higher education affordable; balance excellence with access; advance superb teaching; create new knowledge; and prepare citizens for an enlightened democracy.
Rightly, we celebrate our NHS and the BBC as international beacons of excellence and access.
These examples of two superb organizations signal to me that excellence and access go hand in hand and that the orchestral experience is both durable and flexible.
Since taking office in 2011, Quillen has sought to reimagine the liberal arts within the changing landscape of higher education and ensure educational excellence and access for all talented students regardless of their financial circumstances.
Access Excellence's Beans and Birds: A Natural Selection Simulation exercise (Access Excellence, 1995) simulates natural selection on a population of pinto beans in four different-colored backgrounds; however, this activity includes no explicit mathematics.
There should also be a greater emphasis on helping students to move freely between institutions so that they are not bound by what one institution can offer, but can access excellence wherever it exists.
