arrange • compose • conduct
Posts discussing education, both in and outside of music
As you get further removed from the age and generation of your students, how do you maintain mutual reference points? There are at least two ways. You should probably use them both. Stay current! Do your best to engage with current music, styles, trends. It’s important to draw a distinction […]
The real art of teaching is singular. The real art of teaching is figuring out what makes one student tick, and then devising techniques to (a) make them curious about a subject and (b) help them feed their curiosity. It’s not scalable. It’s personal. It’s one-on-one. The best teachers can […]
Summertime affords space for reflection. Can you bring that to your everyday? But I think that waiting till summer to reflect on what’s working and what isn’t takes too long. Often, when I’m in the middle of work, I don’t think I can possibly also devote time to stepping back […]
Content dictates form • Less is more • God is in the detailsall in the service ofClaritywithout which nothing else matters. – Stephen Sondheim This is the mantra at the beginning of both volumes of Stephen Sondheim’s magical lyric collections, Finishing The Hat and Look, I Made a Hat. But […]
Content dictates form • Less is more • God is in the detailsall in the service ofClaritywithout which nothing else matters. – Stephen Sondheim This is the mantra at the beginning of both volumes of Stephen Sondheim’s magical lyric collections, Finishing The Hat and Look, I Made a Hat. But […]
Content dictates form • Less is more • God is in the detailsall in the service ofClaritywithout which nothing else matters. – Stephen Sondheim This is the mantra at the beginning of both volumes of Stephen Sondheim’s magical lyric collections, Finishing The Hat and Look, I Made a Hat. But […]
Content dictates form • Less is more • God is in the detailsall in the service ofClaritywithout which nothing else matters. – Stephen Sondheim This is the mantra at the beginning of both volumes of Stephen Sondheim’s magical lyric collections, Finishing The Hat and Look, I Made a Hat. But […]
What’s your personal purpose statement? I’ve worked in the past on developing a purpose statement for my ensembles. Here’s where I landed for the Aces: To make high-level genre-agnostic music with tenors and basses from Rockford HS and share it with people through performance and recording, such that (A) a […]
It’s great to find people who are crazy in the same way as you. Tonight I attended a concert production of Les Misérables, performed by a cast of seventh through twelfth graders who started rehearsing together on Monday. (The cast featured two of my students/Aces members as Jean Valjean and […]
Every year, I start my garden with hope. I pick delicious herbs and vegetables, prep my garden beds, nurture them and get them started right. Then, of course the summer gets going – complete with out of town visits, family trips, camps, commitments, and all the work I am doing. […]