Shifting Perspective

In his TED talk last week, Astro Teller of the Google X Laboratories said: Sometimes shifting perspective is more important than being smart. He described his teams as actively working to find the flaws in their projects; they strive to spot the weaknesses that make their own goals impossible. They do this because the sooner […]

Level Eleven Stretches

“Rajaton is our favorite vocal group in the world, actually,” said Morten Vinther of The Real Group during their joint concert in Stockholm last week. Of course, many people would use the same phrase to describe The Real Group, so you can imagine just how amazing a shared concert would be. About […]

Educational Games

I’ve been thinking about the “educational” computer games that are increasingly prevalent and available. Especially the idea of gamifying education. In my experience, they’re generally a failure on both educational and gaming fronts: the games aren’t as well-designed as commercial games, and they generally don’t help kids learn any faster. I know that […]

Neon-Colored Hair

A recent Facebook discussion renewed my faith in humanity. The poster asked, “Do you let your students go to Festival with neon colored hair?” Overwhelmingly, the responding conductors said, “Of course!” Responses ranged from “Yes. Full stop.” to “Absolutely. I can’t imagine any choir being adjudicated by the color of their hair.” […]

Art Stays With You

Last night I attended TED Live in Cinemas – the opening session of TED2016, simulcast to my local movie theatre. I was inspired, uplifted, encouraged, and challenged by the entire group of presenters: from 10-year-old author Ishita Katyal, to Google X head Astro Teller, from geneticist Ricardo Sabatini (my son’s favorite) to TV […]

Every Performance is a Milestone

Milestones aren’t destinations. The ancient Romans built them so travelers would know how far they had come, and how far still to go to their goal. When you treat a concert as a destination, you are ignoring the real destination (yearlong goals of artistry, knowledge, teamwork). So I ask my students to think of concerts as […]