All Entries Tagged With: "Education"

Quick Takes: Gesturing….

My teacher Jorge Mester the first time I met him asked me this simple question “What is conducting?”  I was stumped and after several feeble attempts to describe what conducting is (which is what I wanted to do with my life!) he helped me work it out. That lesson was the most profound he ever [...]

It’s Worse Than We Thought….

I have noticed lately, with some horror, what now passes for “Arts journalism.”   Arts journalism, especially Classical Music journalism, seems to have taken a dive.  The expression “dumbing down” comes to mind.  Or perhaps that’s just self-preservation on their part.

In order to move forward, first you must “retreat”….plus handing the keys to the musicians!

We had Drew here this week for the purpose of beginning the process to re-structure our organization to be ready for the future.  Being that we are in a strong position and not in crisis makes this the perfect time for that process.  In other words, rather than waiting for the fires to start, we are attempting to [...]

Bravo, you’re making it up as you go along, let us accredit you!

Having read the recent postings by Drew, and Joe regarding the booming music/arts school enrollments, I decided to do some digging.  There is a body that is at least partially responsible for this, an association that accredits schools to be completely autonomous i.e accreditation for proving that you are doing whatever you want to do……the [...]

SCHUBERT!!! WE SHOULD BE PLAYING SCHUBERT!!!

Strangely, I have lately run across a certain mentality in the orchestra business that I thought was heading into extinction.  Silly me.

Dear Mr. President…

Dear Mr. President…….. First, let me tell you how delighted I am to be able to say those words.

Goldilocks Come Forth…….

Gee, I kinda feel like Goldilocks wandering into the home of the Three Bears during Christmas. Looking out over the music world I thought I would take the leisurely approach and blog about… well, something. My buddy Ron has been furiously posting when I thought for sure he would be exhausted from trying [...]

Future Shock…

This is the first in a series of postings about one musician’s desire to bring Classical Music back to the People, by whatever means necessary…
Are you depressed yet?  It seems like every time you turn around there is another article about this orchestra cutting costs, that orchestra cutting concerts, the other orchestra in the red, [...]

Waving the Magic Wand

A pop survey -

What is the most common gripe among orchestra players?

In my experience it’s “Boy, this conductor sucks!”  I have heard it from several angles, including from inside the orchestra (I spent many years playing Orchestral Keyboards, probably the performance opportunity I miss most with having a conducting career) and from when I’m on [...]

Connections

The show that got me hooked on cable TV was called “Connections.”  This madman historian, James Burke, produced this fabulous show on science and history that was absolutely riveting.  His premise was that history does not proceed in a straight line.  So he would talk about one invention and then somehow connect it to something [...]