music education

A Chicago music teacher who revitalized a music program is facing deportation. According to news reports Anand Sukumaran was promised by the Chicago Public Schools that they would assist him in making sure his work visa was taken care of. Apparently this did not happen and they are now trying to remedy the situation. The deportation of Sukumaran would be a great loss to his students and to our field. We need more excellent music teachers in inner city schools… Read More »Chicago music teacher faces deportation

The International Society for Improvised Music (ISIM) just issued a call for proposals for their second annual conference. I attended the first conference last year at University of Michigan and it was phenomenal. There were great performances (the performances by Paul Berliner and Pauline Oliveros will stand out in my mind for a very long time), interesting papers and excellent conversations that took place throughout. The conference is a great opportunity for music educators to learn more about improvisation and… Read More »International Society For Improvised Music (ISIM) Call for Proposals

About a year ago I wrote about the possibility of robots appearing in school music ensembles. With The League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots (LEMUR) still at it, a set of concerts are being performed by robots with music commissioned from composers ranging from Morton Subotnick to the group They Might Be Giants. Is it possible that at some point our society might face a situation where robots, rather than human beings, are used to perform music in certain places?… Read More »Robots Performing Music

As I was watching the last couple of minutes of the spelling bee championship tonight I couldn’t help but notice the amount of finalists who were involved in music. But even better then that was the statement of Evan O’Dorney upon winning the spelling bee: “My favorite things to do were math and music, and with the math I really like the way the numbers fit together,”….. “And with the music I like to let out ideas by composing notes… Read More »Spelling Bee Champion & Music Education Advocacy

I recently returned from the Mountain Lake Colloquium for General Music Methods teachers (and graduate students). I cannot say enough positive things about the colloquium and words such as revitalizing, inspiring, thought-provoking, and collaborative can only begin to give a sense of what a wonderful conference this was. It was obvious that great care went into its organization and it went very smoothly while truly providing a sense of community. Bennett Reimer and Estelle Jorgensen provided rich philosophical perspectives and… Read More »Mountain Lake Colloquium