Catalysts & Connections - Evan Tobias

Prior to being a full time student, when I was teaching in a public school, I remember being very frustrated with my lack of access to various music research journals. There was no way I could afford subscriptions to the wide variety of journals I now read and downloading one article could cost up to […]

While watching Super Bowl XLII I was thinking about the role music played during commercials and the game. While it was interesting to think about the particular choices of music during commercials, I got the biggest kick from the “Mr. Oboe” commercial featuring Ephraim Salaam and Chester Pitts who, according to the commercial […]

Jonathan Savage has been writing an interesting series of posts on the cross curricular dimensions of the UK National curriculum. If you are interested in the design of curricula, or are curious about the types of things taking place in education in the UK, his posts offer a helpful look at how cross curricular initiatives […]

If you are interested in issues of social justice and music education consider attending the upcoming Musica Ficta Lived Realities: A Conference on Exclusions and Engagements in Music, Education and the Arts, at the Univesity of Toronto from Thurs. Jan. 24 - Sun. Jan. 27 2008. It looks like an excellent set of sessions […]

It might be freezing outside but you can still consider having your students enroll in:
New York University’s Summer Institute of Music Technology for High School students July 14-25th, 2008.
This two-week workshop is designed for high school students entering their junior or senior year who wish to learn about and experience music technology. Through class […]

I’ve been closely following recent dialogue over the legality of transferring music from a legally purchased CD to a computer. The web has been abuzz since Marc Fisher wrote in a recent article that the RIAA considers the practice of transferring music from a legally purchased CD, illegal. This information quickly spread around the […]

If you’re looking for some inspiration for your students to practice their instruments over winter break, why not have them watch these videos of Igor Falecki, a five year old percussionist and Isaiah Chevrier a 5 year old Djembe player.

Of course there are many other examples of children who perform very well on their instruments […]

I always enjoyed having my students create ringtones and discuss the musical ideas they came up with and decisions they made. One of the aspects of the process I focused on was how to compose music for such a short amount of time. Robert Voisey wrote about this topic in an interesting article […]

Thanks to Jeff Chang for pointing out a recent article in the New York Times that discusses David Henry Hwang’s new musical “Yellow Face.” His new play addresses some of the issues of race, ethnicity and stereotypes that he also dealt with in his musical M. Butterfly in response to Miss Saigon.
This reminded me of […]

I mentioned the Sept. 25th hearing on degrading stereotypes of women in media a couple of days ago in a post regarding the discussion of rap and misogyny. The House Subcommittee hearing titled “From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degrading Images” provides some interesting material to raise in music classrooms for students’ […]