It was great to come home to Maryland to this Baltimore Sun article about the Baltimore Symphony, reaching new audiences, and about interacting with current audiences in new ways. I returned from a few days in Milwaukee (March 27-30) at the MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) National Conference. At first it may seem an odd choice of conference as I do not currently teach private music students in the traditional sense and I am no longer teaching regularly in high school. Instead, it was the perfect place to go for two reasons. First, MTNA has named this past year the Year of Collaborative Music - an opportunity for all of us to take a new look at possible musical or other music-inclusive collaborations. Second, there was a distinct theme at the conference - ideas for working with and communicating among non-musicians. As a church musician I constantly have opportunities to assemble a variety of people - singers/instrumentalists, musicians/non-musicians - together to make music.
In addition to concerts and masterclasses - of special note, a great concert featuring Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano and Warren Jones, piano - I'm listing some topics of interest below.
Music Transcends Middle East Conflict - Presentation highlighting current efforts to promote cultural understanding through music, specifically US relations in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Palestinian Territories.
Performance Medicine - New technology combining neuroscience with music pedagogy to fix and prevent performance related injury.
Recreational Music Making - Movement toward opening musical possibilities for all. This series of sessions has particular importance to me as I constantly hear from people that "someone told me I shouldn't sing" or "this person said I'm no good at piano, so I stopped when I was 8 years old". The Recreational Music Making sessions at the conference showed many great examples of adults regaining a love of music through playing or singing that they thought was previously unavailable to them.
Sight-Reading - Developing visual skills (peripheral vision, tracking, pattern recognition, and short-term memory as a means of better sight-reading.
Ultimate Music Theory - A new and extremely well-designed source for learning rudiments of music theory whether your goal is to read better for a choir or instrumental setting or whether you intend to pursue music as your career (Advanced Placement Music Theory Exam, College Entrance Exam, etc).
In the weeks ahead, I look forward to developing and incorporating some of the ideas of the conference - into daily use at St. Louis. Did someone tell you not to sing or play? Please tell me the story.
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