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We are all constantly striving to come up with the “perfect program,” one that will challenge our students and thrill our audience.
“Small people talk about people, medium people talk about things, but big people talk about ideas.”
The next book I will share with you is Teaching Music with Purpose by Dr. Peter Boonshaft. Peter has written a trilogy of sorts: Teaching Music with Passion and Teaching Music with Promise are the first and third entries in the collection.
Regular readers of this column may recall that in last December’s SBO issue, the title was “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” (see it at http://it.ly/2D4Svlsl ).
Last summer at the Colorado Bandmaster’s Association summer workshop, I attended a great clinic by Andrea Hollenbeck called “From Chaos to Sanity.”
In the July issue of SBO, I suggested starting a “book club” where every three months I would suggest a book that might be of use to SBO readers.
In doing clinics and adjudications all over the country, I get to see hundreds of bands each year. Nearly all of them, of course, have different instrumentation and perform in widely different environments for both rehearsals and concerts.
I am often asked to guest conduct and do clinics for ensembles and their most frequent request is that I work on a march.
In my ongoing work with several wonderful young music educators, we decide what books that we will read together and then discuss those during a telephone or Skype session.
At some point, every band or orchestra director will either retire or move to another career.
I have been blessed with the privilege of working with many honor ensembles over the last few years.
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