The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music education: Here are 10 reasons why students should be allowed to major in music
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By Jacob Stockinger
Many, maybe most, of the college and university students are back by now.
And a week from tomorrow, classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will begin.
K-12 classes in public schools and private schools will also start, if they haven’t already, as will another year of music lessons.
And so will the new concert season.
Coincidentally, The Ear came across a post from Forbes magazine that deals with whether students should be allowed to major in music (below, in a photo by Shutterstock).
Many parents, and many politicians too, feel that more practical, higher paying fields are better investments of energy, time and especially money.
The same logic applies these days to the arts and humanities versus the so-called STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Anyway, the advice columnist Liz Ryan answered the question with 10 reasons why it is a good idea to let a student major in music.
The Ear –- who is an avid defender of the liberal arts and of college years not as a trade school but as a chance to explore and experiment — thought that whether you are a student, parent or teacher, you might be interested in reading the reasons why a music major makes sense.
Here is a link:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2017/06/04/ten-reasons-to-let-your-kid-major-in-music/
Tags: advice, Arts, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, classes, Classical music, college, column, Early music, engineering, experiment, explore, field, Forbes, humanities, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, K-12, lesson, lessons, liberal arts, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, magazine, major, mathematics, Mozart, Music, Music education, music major, opera, Orchestra, Parent, pay, Piano, politician, Politics, practical, private, private school, public, public school, school, school year, science, STEM, Student, symphony, talent, Teacher, technology, trade, trade school, United States, university, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Classical music education: Let us now praise music teachers and their legacy
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By Jacob Stockinger
By now, the school year is mostly over at all levels from kindergarten through undergraduate and graduate school at colleges and universities.
So are music lessons, both public and private, and student recitals and concerts. (Below is Madison and UW-Madison violin teacher Eugene Purdue with student Thomas Stringfellow during a lesson in 2011.)
So now is the perfect time to talk about the legacy of creativity that music teachers have in our lives.
Here is an essay that The Ear finds to be one of the best appreciations of music teachers – even those famous teachers at Juilliard who taught violinists Itzhak Perlman, Anne Akiko Meyers and Midori — that he has ever read. It covers different methods and styles of teaching and learning. And it is filled with gratitude from students toward their teachers.
It appeared in The New York Times and was written by critic Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim.
Here is a link:
If you have an appreciation or memory of, or a tribute to, a music teacher and music lessons, leave word in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Anne Akiko Meyers, Arts, Bachelor's degree, Chamber music, Classical music, college, Creation, creative, Eugene Purdue, Graduate School, Itzhak Perlman, Jacob Stockinger, Juilliard, K-12, legacy, lesson, Madison, method, Midori, Music, Music education, Piano, private, public, recital, style, Teacher, The New York Times, United States, university, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin
Classical music education: Composer Robert Schumann and cellist Steven Isserlis offer advice to young people about going into music
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By Jacob Stockinger
Schools are back in session – public and private K-12 elementary, middle and high schools, and colleges and universities, including Edgewood College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
And private music lessons have started up again after a summer break.
So it seems only fitting to offer advice to young people who are thinking about becoming musicians.
Such advice comes from two very good sources, one older and one newer: The Romantic German composer Robert Schumann (below top) and the acclaimed contemporary British cellist Steven Isserlis (below bottom).
Schumann (1810-1846) wrote a book (below) with his advice to young musicians. Then Isserlis updated that book with his commentaries.
You can get a good sample of its contents, from practicing to performing, from the entry on the blog “Only Strings” that is written by local musician Paul Baker (below), who also hosts a radio program for WSUM, the award-winning student-run radio station at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Here is a link:
Tags: Advice to Young Musicians, Arts, blog, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, college, Edgewood College, Education, elementary school, German music, Germany, Great Britain, high school, Jacob Stockinger, K-12, Madison, Middle school, Music, Music education, Only Strings, Orchestra, Pauk Baker, Pro Arte Quartet, Radio, Robert Schumann, Romantic, Romanticism, school, Steven Isserlis, string, UK, United Kingdom, United States, university, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, WSUM
Classical music education: Let us now praise K-12 music teachers as an elementary music teacher in Whitewater wins an award for Excellence in Music Education
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Memorial Day holiday is over and now we start winding down the academic year in public and private K-12 schools.
That makes it a great time to catch up with news that reminds us how important music education and education in the arts, humanities and liberal arts, can be to the development of the whole child or young person and to lifelong learning.
It helps us to realize that, despite what many legislators say, education should never be a trade school that provides vocational education or career preparation, and that education is not always all about the so-called STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – deemed so useful to business, industry and individual wealth accumulation. (You can hear educator Richard Gill give a popular TED Talk about the value of music education in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
So here is open important reminder via a press release:
The Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) and Ward-Brodt Music have awarded their 2016 Award for Excellence in Music Education to Whitewater music teacher Christine Hayes of Lincoln/LINCS Elementary School at a choir concert for grades 2-5.
The presentation was held on Tuesday, May 17, in the Whitewater High School Auditorium.
This annual award celebrates an educator who displays leadership, passion, dedication, and innovation within the music classroom, positively affecting the lives of his or her students and the community at large, and is designated for one outstanding music educator in southern Wisconsin.
The MSO and Ward-Brodt developed the award to recognize that cultivating the artistic growth of young students is one of the unique and challenging jobs for teachers in Wisconsin.
Christine Hayes (below) has dedicated her life to enriching young people and the communities around her through music education. In her 29 years of working in the Whitewater Unified School District and by contributing to music in her community in a variety of ways, she’s changed the lives of many students and her colleagues. She believes that “inspiring and challenging children today will lead to their embracing music for their lifetime.”
In the nominations by parents, teaching colleagues, church members, and school administrators, Hayes was described as “a power house of creative energy” who “encourages children to express their feelings through music.”
Her students at Lincoln/LINCS Elementary School, where she has spent the last 19 years, can take part in diverse musical experiences including world drumming, playing guitar and recorder, composing music, and singing in many languages. All of these experiences for children make her classroom “an exciting, musical adventure.”
She has also taught elementary and middle school band, middle school guitar, keyboards and general music.
A former colleague who nominated her wrote, “Mrs. Hayes leads by example by continuing to find ways to improve as an educator by constantly pursuing her own education. She recently completed a trip to Ghana in order to learn about their musical culture.”
In her own words, Hayes said, “My goal is for each student to imagine themselves in musical experiences, provide them authentic learning situations where they create, respond, perform and connect, then collaborate with those students to apply their knowledge and skills to discover their personal musical path.”
Outside the classroom, she founded an after-school orchestra where she volunteers her time as coordinator allowing children to enrich their music education. Currently in its eighth year, the Whitewater Unified School District Strings Program has touched the lives of many school children, with 72 students participating this past year, ranging from fourth grade to high school.
She is also a music leader in her community. Hayes has been serving as the Choir Director for the First United Methodist Church in Whitewater for the past 20 years and served on the board of directors of the Whitewater Arts Alliance for five years.
In her free time she plays clarinet with the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Community Band.
Hayes has also been deeply involved with developing Wisconsin state standards for music education by serving on the writing committee for the National Common Core Music Standards from 2012 to 2014.
In 2015, she was asked to join the Steering Committee for the Wisconsin Music Educators Association (WMEA), continuing her work to improve music education in Wisconsin. Hayes has served as the Chair of the NAfME National Council for General Music Education and as a President of the WMEA.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in music education from Central Michigan University and a master’s degree in music from Northwestern University. She currently resides in Whitewater, Wisconsin.
In 2007 she won the Wal-Mart Wisconsin Teacher of the Year award and in 2008 the Herb Kohl Fellowship Award.
Hayes will be awarded a commemorative plaque and a $500 prize. These prizes have been made possible through the generosity of Ward-Brodt Music of Madison, Wisconsin. To be qualified for the award, a nominee must have taught within a 75-mile radius of Madison in a public or private K-12 school and instructed a band, orchestra, choir or general music course.
Colleagues, current or former students, parents of students, or friends were eligible to nominate a music educator for the award.
The review panel consisted of representatives from public and private school administration, veteran teachers, university staff and knowledgeable community members. (For the sake of full disclosure, The Ear sat on the committee that reviewed the many impressive nominations and decided the winner of the award.)
For more information regarding the Award for Excellence in Music Education, visit http://madisonsymphony.org/award.
Tags: academic year, Americans for the Arts, Art, Arts, award, bachelor's, band, Business, Central Michigan University, Choir, choral music, clarinet, Classical music, colleague, common core, community, composing, drum, Education, elementary school, engineering, feelings, friend, general music, Ghana, God, guitar, Herb Kohl, high school, humanities, industry, Jacob Stockinger, K-12, Keyboard, language, liberal arts, Lincoln, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, master's, math, mathematics, Memorial Day, Middle school, Music, Music education, Northwestern University, Orchestra, Parent, Piano, recorder, school year, science, steering committee, STEM, Student, symphony, Teacher, technology, TED Talk, trade school, United Methodist Church, United States, university, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Whitewater, vocal music, vocational education, volunteer, Wal-Mart, Ward-Brodt, wealth, Whitewater Arts Alliance, Wisconsin Music Educators Association, world drumming, young people, YouTube
Classical music education: Defend and support teachers. The Madison Symphony Orchestra is seeking nominations for its Excellence in Music Education award. The deadline is Jan. 15
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear’s friends at the Madison Symphony Orchestra have asked for the following announcement to be posted.
The Ear is more than happy to do so. For one, he believes in the lifelong benefits of music education as it applies to many other fields and to learning and life enhancement in general by fostering creativity and imagination. Just listen to the Australian music educator talking about the benefits of music education in the YouTube video at the bottom.
A lifelong teacher himself, The Ear also thinks that these days teachers are getting an undeserved bad rap from state and national politicians – especially Republicans – who are looking for scapegoats to blame for their own bad stewardship and inadequate funding of public education.
Here is the announcement:
The Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO), in partnership with Ward-Brodt Music, is accepting nominations for its Award for Excellence in Music Education to one outstanding music educator in southern Wisconsin.
Nominations will be accepted until January 15, 2016 and the nomination form can be found on the Madison Symphony website.
For more information visit: http://madisonsymphony.org/award
Cultivating the artistic growth of young students is one of the most unique and challenging jobs for teachers in Wisconsin.
Recognizing this challenge, the Award for Excellence in Music Education is intended to salute and honor one outstanding individual who displays leadership, passion, dedication, and innovation within the music classroom, positively affecting the lives of her or his students and the community at large.
The award will consist of a commemorative plaque and a $500 prize, to be presented at the recipient’s school.
These prizes have been made possible through the generosity of Ward-Brodt Music of Madison, Wisconsin.
To be qualified, the nominee must teach within a 75-mile radius of Madison in a public or private K-12 school and instruct a band, orchestra, choir or general music course.
Colleagues, current or former students, parents of students, or friends can nominate a music educator for the award.
The review panel will consist of representatives from public and private school administration, teachers, university staff, community members and one MSO representative. (For the sake of full disclosure, The Ear should announce that he has also accepted an invitation to serve on the panel.)
Tags: Arts, award, band, budget, Chamber music, choral music, class, Classical music, Commemorative plaque, community, creativity, dedication, Early music, Education, excelence, government, imagination, innovation, Jacob Stockinger, K-12, leadership, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Music, Music education, Orchestra, Passion, Piano, private school, prize, public education, public eduvaiton, Republican, scapegoat, State school, Student, Teacher, teachers, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music education: Classical music can help students study for final exams. Plus, the WYSO Harp Ensemble and Youth Orchestra perform Saturday afternoon.
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ALERT: Just a reminder that tomorrow, Saturday, Dec. 13, at 1:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, on the UW-Madison campus in the George Mosse Humanities Building at 455 North Park Street.
The Youth Orchestra (below) and the Harp Ensemble of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) will perform.
The orchestra’s program includes The Roman Carnival Overture by the French composer Hector Berlioz; three excerpts from Act 3 of “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” by the German Opera composer Richard Wagner; and the first, third and fourth movements from the Symphony No. 1 in D Minor by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The Harp Ensemble will perform the traditional tune “Be Thou My Vision” as well as “Grandjany, Eleanor and Marcia”; and a medley of music by the Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini.
Call the WYSO office at (608) 263-3320 for up-to-date concert and ticket information. Or visit http://wyso.music.wisc.edu
Tickets are $10 for adult, $5 for young people 18 and under; and they are available at the door 45 minutes prior to each concert.
By Jacob Stockinger
Today is officially the last day of classes for the first semester at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The next two weeks are devoted to a study period and to final papers and exams.
That means classes are also ending at a lot of other public and private universities and colleges around the nation, The Ear suspects. And elementary schools, middle schools and high schools will not be far behind.
So it is a timely time to post the results of research that shows that classical music -– not just any music, but specifically classical music, which lowers rather raises blood pressure –- can help students study and prepare for final exams.
It was published in advance of two radio stations’ scheduling of useful classical music in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California and in San Francisco.
Apparently, the secret is that it has to do with the embedded structure of the music itself.
The researchers, which range from the cancer center at Duke University and the University of San Diego to the University of Toronto, even mention some specific composers and musical genres or forms that exhibit that sense of structure in outstanding ways.
The composers cited include such Old Masters as Johann Sebastian Bach (below top), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (below middle) and Johannes Brahms (below bottom). Richard Strauss and George Frideric Handel also were mentioned. Surprisingly, no mention was made of music by Antonio Vivaldi, Franz Joseph Haydn or Franz Schubert.
But students should avoid loud and more scattered music, the research suggests. No “1812 Overture,” complete with cannons, by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky! Such music is actually disrupting and counterproductive.
Hmmmm.
Maybe that same sense of structure and regularity — especially noticeable in Baroque music as well as the Classical period and early Romantic music — also explains why those composers have appealed to so many people for so long.
It may also explain why student who study music and go through formal music education often go on to high achievement in other fields.
And the preferred forms include solo music, including the piano and the lute, and string quartets. That makes sense to me since they are more intimate and less overwhelming forms. Solo French piano by Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré and Francis Poulenc come in for special mention. (I would also add the 550 sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti.)
The Ear suspects that what works for final exams also works for other studying and homework in general and other intensive intellectual tasks.
And maybe what is good for college students is also good for high school or even middle school or elementary school students.
I do have some questions: Did the researchers take the conflicting evidence about multi-taking into account? But I assume they probably gave that some thought. Still, you have to wonder.
Here is a link to the story:
http://news.usc.edu/71969/studying-for-finals-let-classical-music-help/
Do you have favorite music to study by? (One of my favorites is the Waltz in C-Sharo minor by Frederic Chopin as played with great discernible structure, repetition and variation — listen to inner voices — as well as incredible color and nuance by Yuja Wang in a popular YouTube video at the bottom.)
Favorite composers, favorite kinds and favorite pieces?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: 1812 Overture, Ancora String Quartet, Antonio Vivaldi, arias, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, cancer, cannons, Chamber music, Chopin, Classical era, Classical music, college, composer, Debussy, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Domenico Scarlatti, Duke University, elementary school, exams, Faure, final exams, France, French music, George Frideric Handel, German music, Germany, Giacomo Puccini, Handel, harp, harp ensemble, Haydn, high school, instrumental, Italian music, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, K-12, Los Angeles, Ludwig van Beethoven, lute, Madison, Middle school, Music, Music education, opera, Orchestra, Overture, Piano, Poulenc, private education, public education, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Roman Carnival Overture, Romantic music, Russia, Russian music, San Francisco, Schubert, solo, symphony, Tchaikovsky, Toronto, university, University of San Diego, University of Southern California, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vivaldi, Waltz, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WYSO, YouTube, Yuja Wang
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