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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

Open scores and music students: An invitation to compose from Jason Freeman

The New York Times has a fantastic section called “The Score,” which features composers discussing their music, process, and various issues related to composition. Jason Freeman, a composer and assistant professor at the Center for Music Technology at Georgia Tech, recently wrote about the use of open scores as a springboard for creating music. In his post he mentions the small percentage of adults who continue playing music and speculates that even less compose music. When viewed through the prism… Read More »Open scores and music students: An invitation to compose from Jason Freeman

The [fill in the blank] ensemble reinvented?

The New York Times has an interesting article, titled “The String Quartet Reinvented,” about David Harrington’s (violinist and founder of the Kronos Quartet) role in broadening the stylistic oeuvre of string quartets and reinventing this type of ensemble. In addition to reminding me that some of my favorite groups are chamber groups and small ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet, Ethel, SO Percussion, and the many configurations of Bang on a Can, the article provoked a resurfacing of a question… Read More »The [fill in the blank] ensemble reinvented?