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Blog: Catalysts & Connections

NYU Tech Summer Program for High School Students

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 lectures, labs and individualized studio time, students will learn the fundamentals of music technology. The workshop will cover the following topics: . How to… Read More »NYU Tech Summer Program for High School Students

Ripping CDs & Copyright: Legal or Illegal? Authorized or Unauthorized?

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 web. Recently an engadget article pointed out that the RIAA legal brief was targeting the sharing of the ripped files as the illegal act and that… Read More »Ripping CDs & Copyright: Legal or Illegal? Authorized or Unauthorized?

Five Year Old Percussionists

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 whether on sites such as youtube or on programs such as From The Top . Listening to and watching other children perform, just may… Read More »Five Year Old Percussionists

Creating Ringtones

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 at New Music Box in 2004 asking, “How short can a composition get?” He mentions composers ranging from Chopin to John Zorn. For those of you who… Read More »Creating Ringtones

Responding to Representations in Musical Theater

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 Julia Eklund Koza’s chapter Unhappy Happy Endings: Cultural Politics in the Broadway Musical Hit Once on This Island (1997; revised 2001) in her book… Read More »Responding to Representations in Musical Theater