JAVA Dec '18 issue

But appreciating art would pale in comparison to creating art, starting when
Wuestemann got a hold of his first guitar. “My life changed when I was five
years old and I got a guitar in my hand,” he said. “It was a classical guitar with
nylon strings and wide neck, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I started taking
lessons in Kassel at the conservatory there. At age 11, I won a big international
competition and so when I was 12, I had my first agent and I started playing
professionally. It really changed my life because it made me move on from my
family roots.”
Wuestemann would go on to earn a master’s degree in guitar performance from
the Music Conservatory of Frankfurt and then come to the U.S. to do postgraduate
work at Julliard in New York City. He earned an additional master’s degree from
the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and then headed to the Southwest
to attend the University of Arizona. “I spent three years in Tucson and did my
doctorate of musical arts there,” he said. “I absolutely fell in love with the
desert. I think this is a really amazing and very special place. I have a great
love for Arizona.”
As much as Wuestemann loved the desert, he would not stay long. Soon after
earning his doctorate, he relocated to Louisiana, where he had been hired to build
the guitar program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. After five years
or so, Wuestemann felt he had accomplished all he could and turned his focus
to touring and recording music more extensively. “At the time, my performance
career had really taken off,” he said. “I was playing a hundred concerts a year or
so. I toured exclusively for a couple of years and made a lot of recordings. And
then I had some bad luck accidents. I slipped and fell and shattered my left wrist.
This is probably the worst thing that could happen to a guitarist.”
An additional shoulder injury would derail Wuestemann’s musical career
completely. He had to make the hard decision to end his musical ambitions and
pursue other interests. His knowledge in musical instruments helped him team
up with partners as he transitioned into an entrepreneurial venture producing
carbon fiber guitars. From this experience he began learning how to manage a
complex organization. “I’d lived my whole life in the arts as a performer. As a
classical guitarist, you’re a soloist, so it’s very single-minded focus,” he said. “But
creating this company with partners and building a team of workers on staff was
an amazing experience.”
This foray into the entrepreneurial realm helped Wuestemann immensely, as
he would return to the arts in the nonprofit sector. Before joining Scottsdale
Arts, he gained years of experience transforming the Acadiana Center for the
Arts in Lafayette into one of the largest arts organizations in Louisiana. More
significantly, he met his wife, CeCe Cole, during his tenure.
“My wife is a very fine visual artist,” he said. “She is originally from Louisiana.
She moved here with me and is carving out her own path. As she is exploring
and getting to know the art scene in Phoenix, we both are impressed with the
extraordinary level of quality work that happens here. We both felt that the visual
arts here have been underrepresented from a national perspective. I think Phoenix
is one of the best-kept secrets when it comes to visual arts.”
Scottsdale Arts has been a cultural mainstay in the Valley for years. SMoCA is
known for its important and dynamic art exhibitions. Scottsdale Performing Arts
puts on quality programming every season. The most recent iteration of Canal
Convergence was a rousing success, highlighting both national and local artists.
Wuestemann still sees untapped potential and growth.
“When I arrived here, what I saw was an organization with a rich history and
tradition in a pretty awesome community with some good facilities that had struggled
for the last ten years mostly at the leadership level,” he said. “There was lots of
turmoil at the highest level. But when you looked underneath all that, you could see
the quality of work that came out of the organization. The staff here still managed
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