I think that "presenting" is actually a good term in this context. And there's a strong analogy here with (as you mention) presenting "the written word" or presenting "ideas". This is particularly evident when you watch someone giving a Powerpoint presentation. Most of us have seen many more of these than we care to remember. And how many of them were ANY good?
The use of Powerpoint in modern business (and yes, particularly "education" as well) has virtually ruined both communication and presentation. Take a look at what Edward Tufte has said about this. People are supposed to be presenting ideas, thoughts, techniques, relationships, etc. to their audience, and yet at least 80% of these "presentations" are just reading what's on the Powerpoint slides. The audience is bored to tears, and what's really important -- what the whole point of the presentation is -- is never presented.
Music is the same way. If you just croak out the notes on the page -- without any consideration to how it SOUNDS, and without any expression (dynamics, changes in timbre and tone quality, changes in tempo as appropriate), then you're not really playing music or performing it. Just like in the case of Powerpoint, it's not about the marks on the page. The marks on the page represent something (and they don't represent it completely). If you leave it at that, then you're not correctly and completely presenting what those marks incompletely represent -- and the result is a waste of time. Of course, it's not really Powerpoint's fault. Powerpoint presentations don't numb people; people numb people. I've seen some masterful Powerpoint presentations, but the mastery is in the presenter and not what's on the slides.
Too often in discussions like this one tends to wax poetic about how important things like feeling and emotion and "art" are in presenting a musical piece. But as a practical matter this tends to go in an unhelpful (because it becomes a subjective) direction. For me, it's more helpful to think of it as "communication" rather than "art" -- or perhaps that the art is in the communication. Dave's use of "sharing" is apt. This isn't a purely subjective exercise (which has been tried by some composers/artists and is wretched to listen to or to see). There are guidelines and shared expectations and experiences. That's the presentation.
Gary Merrill
Wessex EEb Bass tuba (DW 3XL or 2XL)
Mack Brass Compensating Euph (DE N106, Euph J, J9 euph)
Amati Oval Euph (DE 104, Euph J, J6 euph)
1924 Buescher 3-valve Eb tuba (with std US receiver), Kelly 25
Schiller American Heritage 7B clone bass trombone (DE LB K/K10/112/14 Lexan, Brass Ark MV50R)
1947 Olds "Standard" trombone (Olds #3)