jedscott

Today I want to honor the complexity of our students. Too often, I think, we tend to see a few data points (he’s a starting tackle on Varsity Football, she dyes her hair bright pink, he loves to sing and dance, she wears sleeveless shirts to school) and fill in the […]

Statisticians and labor experts tell us that today’s college graduates can expect five to seven careers in their lifetime. Not job changes, but wholesale career changes. With that future, I see no alternative but to tell students to pursue their deepest passion as a college major. If they can expect […]

That’s what a graduating senior said to me right after our Farewell Concert last spring. “It’s fine, I just never cry.” (Seniors around him were falling apart.) I told him he should work on that. Tears are a physical sign of being in touch with our emotions – if you can’t […]

The flu happens. You might be able to predict it a bit (based on attendance in class, or your kids’ behavior) but when it gets you, it’s always a shock. Being ready for the flu, then, means being ready to miss a rehearsal and still be ready for the concert. It means building slack […]

Let me tell you a secret: We know. I overheard a young man in a piano lesson play a piece for the sixth week in a row. He clearly hasn’t spent much time on it beyond his lesson time; if he had, he’d be five pieces farther in the book […]

About a decade ago a friend paid me a compliment – though I’m not sure she meant it the way I took it. “You’re really comfortable with silence.” She happened to be around the choir room as I was teaching a music theory lesson; I had asked a question and […]

I just received my second major commission for the Rockford Aces. After the success of our 2013 commission of Alice Parker (Cindy) I was hungry to commission again, and with the help of a grant from my local education foundation I was able to commission Michael McGlynn, founder and music director […]

The first performance of a new group is kind of like a Band-aid. Best to tear it off fast. My personal preference for first performance includes two big criteria: 1, slightly before they feel ready; 2, in front of an audience without astronomical expectations. One great solution is to book a performance of the […]

If you are worried about people rejecting, criticizing the art you want to make, don’t worry. They will. No art is for everyone. People reject Lin-Manuel Miranda’s brilliant Hamilton, saying “I hate rap.” The crowd rioted at the first performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Your art won’t be […]

It won’t happen. I think a lot of young artists are afraid that if they use up their good ideas before they’re ready to execute them properly, that they will fail with them and have nothing to replace them. They very well might fail with their first ideas; that’s part of […]