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Blog: Catalysts & Connections

The Future of Orchestras and Their Role in Music Education: A Dialogue

Michael Gagliardo contributed a blog post over at the League of American Orchestras regarding the role that orchestras play in music education. The post focuses primarily on the lack of young musicians who attend orchestra concerts and the degree to which orchestral musicians should be enthusiastic during concerts designed specifically for young people. What types of concert formats do you think would benefit your students? What types of innovations might orchestras make to help build interest among young string players… Read More »The Future of Orchestras and Their Role in Music Education: A Dialogue

Creating, Producing, Analyzing, & Critiquing Music in the Cloud: IndabaMusic & Music Education

Music educators can benefit from the increasing sophistication and ease of use of music web-based technologies allowing for a wide range of musical engagement. IndabaMusic is one such technology with great potential for music educators looking to have their students create, record, produce, listen to, analyze, and critique music. This web-based platform makes it easy for students to collaborate on projects in ways similar to that of professional musicians working together across the globe. In addition to serving as a… Read More »Creating, Producing, Analyzing, & Critiquing Music in the Cloud: IndabaMusic & Music Education

Regina Carter's "Reverse Thread" as inspiration for potential chamber music projects

Wether or not your music program includes string education, it is well worth your time to listen to and consider including this NPR interview with violinist Regina Carter in your classes. Carter, a winner of a MacArthur Genius grant, discusses her work interpreting African folk music and realizing several pieces in new contexts on her latest album, among other aspects of her thoughts on performing and music in general. The instrumentation which includes a violin, accordian, and kora are compelling… Read More »Regina Carter's "Reverse Thread" as inspiration for potential chamber music projects

The Results of an interactive composition project…

I posted earlier on Jason Freeman’s open score project and invitation for people to create their own musical versions of his open scores. The results are in and he selected several versions that were performed my pianist Jenny Lin. You can listen to them and read comments by the creators in his latest post on “The Score.” Would you consider trying a similar project in your own music program?

AERA 2010 Conference & Music Education

For those interested in music education research, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2010 Conference schedule is available – the conference takes place this weekend through Tuesday. This annual conference is always full of phenomenal research sessions in a very wide array of disciplines. Thanks to Paul Baker, from the AERA Communications and Outreach committee, a NING site dedicated to the conference is already up and running and the twitter account @AERA2010 will be aggregating tweets tagged with #AERA &… Read More »AERA 2010 Conference & Music Education