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I’ve been thinking about education for a really long time. This is partly because I am the daughter of an academic, and partly because I’ve had quite the interesting ride along the way to becoming the perfect exemplar of what’s wrong with education.

Two pivotal components of education are what you learn and what it’s supposed to mean once you’ve completed a given phase of school. My thought here is that both are failing in spectacular fashion. Failing the students, and failing our teachers and schools. Kids aren’t getting what they need, and even if they are able to jump through the flaming hoops and succeed scholastically, that success is nearly irrelevant in terms of navigating the post-school world.

The Well Tempered Clarinetist has a steady, rock solid technique and is able to maintain and enhance it over time.

Beginning with the most primary motivation of the musician- to create an artistic experience for self and others- the well tempered clarinetist systematically progresses along that path, never losing sight of the original goal. She exhibits not only musical imagination, but also creative problem solving.

The Well Tempered Clarinetist is alive with musical inspiration. He progresses steadily and solidly through any obstacles which hampers the ideal balance of freedom and control in musical expression.

Music is an extremely complicated language to translate into a living

Regular Vftp readers will have read before about my colleague at the Wrexham Symphony Orchestra, Nigel Hughes.

Nigel is the orchestra’s principal trombonist. He is also blind. (He also designed the orchestra’s excellent website).

The fact that someone can play works like Rachmaninov 1, Shostakovich 7 and Mahler 6 (a sampling of the works we’ve done together) from memory and lead the low brass without being able to see the conductor (although some baton-skeptics may think this constitutes an unfair advantage for him).

Of course, over the years as friends and colleagues have come to WSO concerts, many have asked me how he does it.

Well, as it happened, I was tweeted last week by a Mahler fan who is also a blind

I usually hand my pianist:
a) Double-sided copies, three-hole punched in a black binder.
b) Single-sided copies, maybe a little faded.
c) A copy in the wrong key. It’s not hard to transpose, right?

The last bass line on the page is:
a) Fully legible in all its harmonic glory.
b) Missing some low notes that got cut off.
c) My pianist should be able to improvise the bass line, dammit.

I give my pianist her part:
a) As soon as I start working on a piece.
b) Three to four weeks before the performance.
c) The day before, if she’s lucky. Don’t I pay her to sight read?

Last time I needed my pianist to sight read contemporary music, I:
a) Would never do such a thing!
b) Apologized profusely and thanked her for trying.
c)

Ilkka Talvi compares a photograph of the Takacs Quartet with the Joachim Quartet in his post "Then and Now," and makes a truly valid point about the way high-profile concerts have essentially "devolved":

We seem to have gone back in time, as nowadays we unfortunately enjoy our musical encounters more with our eyes than with our ears, as if concerts were intended for deaf people. Everyone should enjoy a blind person's experience: bouncing around and madly waving bows or batons obviously would be of no use.

Talvi's "time travel" refers, of course, to the extravagances and showmanship of the 19th century. Now that we are a decade into the 21st century, I'm becoming nostalgic for the 20th century of my youth. I remember (with deep

For every composer, there usually comes a moment when you must decide to follow the inner voice that pushes toward an aesthetic that is meaningful and authentic to your being or write music to be “accepted” by others.  I’ve thought about this lately and tried to recall the moment I made my own decision in the matter. What prompted these thoughts was the recent premiere of a chamber work of mine for clarinet and saxophone that I entitled Citizens of Nowhere. The title is taken from an article of the same name written in 2003 by Paul Kingsnorth in The New Statesman. The article puts forth the assertion that a new global middle class is emerging that is, as Kingsnorth puts it “…Rootless, technocratic,

As some of you may have gathered, I'm hustling out here in Baltimore. Gone are the days of composers calling me up for last-minute tv gigs, of weeks full of teaching my beloved students, of having the luxury of near-daily blog ramblings.

So yeah, I'm hustling. Trying to make the most of my non-schooly time by taking as many students as I can get, and incorporating music into most of my research and writing. One of my hustling venues is a small teaching studio in Howard County I have on Sundays. There is a reasonable flow of people who wander by, and most of my new students stroll in and want to meet with me before they start weekly lessons. Fair enough. Some people push me a little and ask for a free trial lesson, to which I politely

A recent New York Times article featured an interview with Mark Vaccacio, who has terminal cancer.  He began performing in “Beatlemania” on Broadway, and is now a member of Strawberry Fields, the tribute band.

Mark has this to say about the place performing has in his life today:

“When I put my teeth in and my wig on, and the costume, I’m not a cancer patient anymore,” he said. “It’s like Superman. You become Superman. The whole mystique of the Beatles, the beautiful music, starts surging through you.”

Michael Wilson’s article sparked my awareness of the ways in which performing can make people feel at peace with the world.

The Party

Here are a few ways that you can use your iPhone (or other smart phone, presumably) to help you with aural skills. Of course, all of these suggestions apply for “old-fashioned” versions of these apps, too (i.e., if you have a real metronome), and these suggestions are just as valid for practicing with your instrument—not just aural skills!

Voice memos: record yourself doing the sight-singing exercises, then play back your performance. How accurate was it? What kinds of mistakes did you make? Correct the mistakes, and record again.

iPod: Listen to music!
• Try to determine the meter, possible time signatures, the modality (major or minor), the instruments that are playing, possible dynamic markings, possible tempo