Music

New blogging job.

This week, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve joined a team of bloggers on the well-established Music Teachers Blog to add my thoughts and ideas on music teaching and teachers. I’ve been enjoying this blog for nearly a year already, as I find great value in being able to exchange ideas with other independent music …

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Diagnosis of a Faun

Last week, I saw an amazing article in the New York Times, describing the creative relationship between an experienced and adventurous choreographer and a young and talented actor with cerebral palsy. Tamar Rogoff, the choreographer, saw the actor, Gregg Mozgala, in a Shakespeare play and immediately knew that she wanted to work with him to …

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Wild Thing

Recently, I went to see the movie “Where the Wild Things Are”, not quite sure whether to trust this expanded and re-envisioned version of the classic picture book, since it had received mixed reviews. It was tremendous. Grounded in the mundane life of a real little boy, Max, when the movie takes us across the …

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A Life Less Ordinary

Having seen “The Story of the Weeping Camel” and “The Cave of the Yellow Dog”, Byambasuren Davaa’s engrossing and eye-opening docudramas about life as a Mongolian nomad, I was intrigued to hear that “Tulpen”, a movie about a family of Kazakh nomads, directed by Sergei Dvortsevoy, was screening at our local cinema. This 2008 film …

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Intuitive Improvisation

I’m pleased to announce that the article I wrote for American Music Teacher magazine, originally published in the winter of 2007, is now available on line here . It’s specifically targeted at music teachers who would like to venture into the world of creative improvisation and don’t know where to begin, but would also be …

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Viva la Vida!

Choir was never like this when I was a child. I always loved singing and developed an affection for a wide variety of repertoire, so choir was an enjoyable experience as long as the teacher wasn’t too boring or bad-tempered. Yet I also remember stony stares from the other children if I sang too heartily …

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 Why A New Blog?

Why a new blog? Well, this is actually a resurrection, a re-assignation of my blog previously found on my professional website www.free2create.com. I’ve moved for a very specific reason- I want to expand the areas I’m writing about. Yes, I’m a professional musician, teacher and coach. I’m also, like you, much more than what I …

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Flutes Across the World

Growing up as a musician, whenever I heard about men and women undertaking courageous humanitarian projects in developing countries, I always experienced a twinge of guilt. Surely that would be a much more worthwhile activity than simply playing music. What was I doing sitting in my ivory tower practicing the piano when people were starving?

Relaxation for Peak Performance

There was a great article in the New York Times a couple of days ago about the tremendous benefits for athletes of learning to relax when performing. I believe a lot of the tips mentioned could help musicians also. Check it out here