Catalysts & Connections - Evan Tobias

Since for many, Valentine’s Day encourages expressions of love, why not address music’s power to do just this? Countless composers and songwriters have expressed their love for another or tried to capture the concept or feelings of love in their music. Contemporary composers such as Corey Dargel allow you to commission a love song […]

 

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Anytime I hear about a music class, whether in K-12 schools or the university level, that makes use of improvisation and composition I get excited. I was happy to read Scott Spiegelberg’s recent post “Teaching Creativity” (via his excellent “Musical Perceptions” blog). At the end of his post he asks the following question […]

Listening is probably one of the most important concepts that our students can learn and engage in. When asking our students to listen, whether to music, sound or each other, do we ask them to listen deeply? This is exactly what composer and performer Pauline Oliveros asks of us. Oliveros has spent years developing her […]

While music educators are starting to bring the talented young performers on “From The Top” to the attention of their students it would be equally beneficial to make our students aware of composers their age. Belinda Reynolds recently wrote about an ensemble consisting solely of teenage performers and composers called “Formerly Known As Classical“.
NPR […]

The discussion of people creating music with computers and software is taking place among music educators, in internationally read newspapers, and in various online forums. With tools to create music becoming more and more accessible to almost anyone with computer access regardless of their music education, the question of who can and should be […]

Do you notice any students of yours who do particularly well when composing in your music program? Let them know that young composers do get noticed! Recently, a 17 year old composer was the winner of 2 big awards and has since formed his own band that plays chamber music composed since 1988. Maybe students […]

Have you ever wanted to commission a new piece of music for your music students but not had the money to make it happen? Sixty five symphony orchestras across the country have created a model for commissioning new music that could easily be replicated in public school music programs.
The orchestras chipped in together to commission […]

I posted earlier about African popular music and popular music influenced by African Muscians. This past Saturday night at Miller Theater I went to the “focus on Africa African Exchanges” concert. The program performed by William Chapman Nyaho on piano and So Percussion on various percussion instruments was phenomenal. The program focused on music written […]