"If these kids have one of those Eureka moments - 'This is for me!' - that's great. But there's a bigger idea. I want them to feel the world is open to them. Not a closed world. It's a world of possibility," she told me.
Success won't come easily. But Ms. Alsop's power to rouse both young and old, with stirring words as well as beautiful music, gives one reason for hope.
"There will be great peaks and great valleys, as there are in life, but we're all enormously conscious of that. We're in it for the long haul. We're already in love with these kids. It makes such a difference in our lives," she said.
Sport, too, has its leaders, men who see beyond the game and who speak of their lives in words of great resonance.
After breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive games streak, the Orioles' Cal Ripken said: "Whether your name is Gehrig or DiMaggio or Robinson or that of some youngster who picks up his bat or puts on his glove, you are challenged by the game of baseball to do your very best day in and day out. That's all I've ever tried to do."
Mr. Ripken put words to a career. As did Sen. John McCain when he conceded the election to Mr. Obama: "I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America ... "
These words, faintly echoing FDR, left many to wonder why he hadn't trusted words enough to speak this way during the campaign.
C. Fraser Smith is senior news analyst for WYPR-FM. His e-mail is fsmith@wypr.org.
