Orchestra

Fix it in the Mix!

UpClose: Franz Welser-Möst

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The Cleveland Orchestra  - Bridging the gap from the concert hall to the community

Given the widely publicized financial hardship in recent years at renowned classical music institutions across the U.S. — including orchestras and opera houses in Philadelphia,New York, San Francisco, Detroit, St. Louis, Nashville, San Diego, and a host of other locations — there is a clear imperative that these organizations must adapt in order to survive. Faced with shrinking audiences and an aging fanbase, the institutions that have remained successful are the ones that have put a renewed emphasis on their social mission: their dedication to reach out to schools, to young people, and to the communities in which they reside.

UpClose: Adrian Anantawan

Exploring strategies for more inclusive music education

Many music educators speak about trying to engage as many students as possible in the act of music making. For children who have physical disabilities, participating in a typical instrumental ensemble can be a particularly challenging proposition. Fortunately, there is now a wide array of adaptive tools in this day and age that have been designed to assist children who have unique physical skill sets. There are also many resources out there for educators who may be unfamiliar with how to best serve these children. And more importantly, even though a disability may be an obvious way in which some children stands apart from their peers, chances are that children with special needs – mental or physical – still have many more things in common with their classmates than they do differences.

Guest Editorial: Fix the F#

Addressing Behavioral Issues in the Classroom

When was the last time you had one of those days where you went home convinced you could set the world on fire if there was a way to make just a few key personnel changes in your band? 

When I have one of these days, sometimes I speculate as if I were on some sports TV show. I wonder how good we could be if band was like professional sports, where the team’s management could put a few underperforming individuals on waivers and bring in some new blood. More often than not, the situations that frustrate us to no end, the ones that have us considering new careers and result in our students being in the doghouse, have very little to do with making music. Instead, these situations encompass the behavior and character issues associated with boys and girls who are in the developmental stages of becoming men and women.

UpClose: Marcus Tsutakawa

Great Works and Fun Gigs: Marcus Tsutakawa & The Garfield Orchestra

As far as public school music programs go, Garfield High School has something pretty special going on. Building on a legacy that stretches from notable alumni like Quincy Jones and Jimi Hendrix (who was expelled his junior year) to current hip-hop artist Macklemore, this Seattle school music department has garnered more than its fair share of acclaim. In particular, its orchestra and jazz programs stand out, both of which are consistently among the best in their respective genres at top national festivals and competitions.  Marcus Tsutakawa (known as “Mr. Tsut” to his students) has been directing the Garfield Orchestras since 1985. While many might point to the numerous trophies, awards, and accolades that ensembles have garnered under his watch, when asked about his most significant achievements, Tsutakawa is quick to mention the array of fantastic literature he’s been able to share with his students. What it boils down to, for him, is pretty simple: “My goal is to perform often, learn as much new repertoire as possible, and play fun gigs.”

PBS Highlights Music Ed

UpClose: Dale Clevenger

“Music Is Life Itself”

Dale Clevenger has forged a virtually incomparable career in music. Recently stepping down after nearly a half century as the principal horn for one of the world’s great institutions, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Clevenger has been the driving force behind the CSO’s brass section, widely lauded as the preeminent of its kind. In addition to being a world-renowned performer – he even had a concerto written specifically for him by iconic American composer John Williams, which was debuted with the CSO in 2003 – Clevenger has also placed a special emphasis on education throughout the years, teaching at a number of colleges and universities, as well as participating in outreach programs through the professional ensembles with which he performed.

Now a professor of practice on the Brass Faculty at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, Clevenger devotes his time to assisting aspiring musicians to “reach for their dreams.” In a recent conversation with SBO, Clevenger looks back at some of the lessons that can be gleaned from his historic career and addresses some of the challenges facing professional ensembles, and the art form they perpetuate, going forward.

2014 Grammy Signature School Semifinalists

U.S. High Schools in the Running for Grants for Music Excellence

The Grammy Foundation has announced that 123 schools nationwide have been selected as Grammy Signature Schools semifinalists for 2014. Created in 1998, the Grammy Signature Schools program recognizes top U.S. public high schools that are making an outstanding commitment to music education during an academic school year.

Each of the Signature Schools finalists will receive a custom award and a monetary grant to benefit its music program. The top programs are designated Gold recipients. The best of the Gold recipients is designated the National Grammy Signature School. The remaining schools are designated Grammy Signature Schools. For schools that are economically underserved, the Grammy Foundation established the Enterprise Award category to recognize the efforts in music education made by these schools. Grammy Signature Schools are made possible in part through the generous support of Converse, the Ford Motor Company Fund, the Hot Topic Foundation, and Journeys.

UpFront Q&A: Marilyn Kesler, SAA

Today’s Suzuki Method: A Conversation with Marilyn Kesler of the Suzuki Association of the Americas

Decades before El Sistema thrust the youth orchestra back into the international spotlight through its widely acclaimed achievements with underserved children in Venezuela, Japanese violinist and pedagogue Shin’ichi Suzuki revolutionized string education with his philosophy of early childhood music education. Emphasizing rote memorization and learning by ear with students as young as three years old, Suzuki’s method quickly gained a major following among music educators in the U.S. and around the world during the second half of the 20^th century. While Suzuki success stories abound, the method has also faced its share of criticism, particularly in regards to its de-emphasis of the importance of reading music, limited repertoire, and a purported lack of creative development.

After teaching orchestra in the public schools of Okemos, Michigan for more than 40 years, Marilyn Kesler now chairs the Board of Directors for the Suzuki Association of America. In this conversation with SBO, Kesler talks candidly about the strengths and limitations of the Suzuki method, while addressing some of the larger challenges that face music education today.

A Conversation on “The Best We Can Be”

Frank Battisti is a familiar name throughout the music world. As the founder and longtime conductor of the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble, the founder of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE), past president of the US College Band Directors National Association, as well as conductor and guest conductor of a wide array of premier ensembles throughout the world, Battisti's resume speaks for itself.

However, of particular note in this storied career is his tenure as a high school band director in Ithaca, N.Y., during which time the band at Ithaca High School, a small and unassuming institution in upstate New York, achieved some extraordinary feats. The band was so good, and so inspired by its director, Mr. B, as he was then known, that such luminaries as Frederick Fennell, Doc Severinsen, and Benny Goodman, among many others, were inspired to visit the school to work with students and guest conduct or perform. The litany of achievements is truly astounding, but perhaps the most impressive realization of just what those ensembles created and achieved was indicated at a reunion of the 1955-1967 bands that took place during the summer of 2006. Some 50 years later, 235 of those former students, now well into their 50s and 60s, gathered to celebrate Battisti's 75th birthday and recount the exploits of the Ithaca High School band. Touched by the impact that his teaching had had on so many people, Battisti was impelled to catalogue the accounts of the band, and has done so in a newly published book, "The Best We Can Be: The Story of the Ithaca High School Band, 1955-67," co-authored by Battisti and R. Bruce Musgrave.

SBO recently caught up with the esteemed director to gain some insight into how the remarkable achievements of those ensembles relate to music education today.

Revisiting the Arts Classroom-Based Performance Assessments in Washington

Two years ago, we reported here about the Classroom-Based Performance Assessments (CBPA) program being implemented in the state of Washington (SBO August, 2007). Many readers were interested enough in this news that they accepted the invitation to take a closer look. Now, educators from 15 states and seven countries have contacted Ms. AnnRene Joseph, Arts Program supervisor, for permission to cite and use the Washington CBPAs as a model for their own state, district, and school arts assessment programs.

Since that time, we can report that excellent progress has been made. Washington has completed its second phase of this important fine-arts classroom-based performance and assessment project involving 295 school districts and is the only state in the nation conducting a large-scale reporting of performance-based assessments at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels, in all four fine arts disciplines: music, art, dance and drama.

The positive impact of the CBPAs ensures that arts instruction is occurring in the state of Washington and validates the need for highly qualified and certified instructors in the arts to meet and exceed the expectations of the state for its one million students. Teachers are reporting that the CBPAs and the statewide reporting process "saved the arts programs in their districts" during the past year of financial issues across the nation.

Beating Those Practice-Time Blues

Did Grammy-winning musicians always like to practice when they were kids or did they moan and groan about it, just like the kids in your band or orchestra? I asked some Grammy winners how they felt about practicing when they were youngsters. Here are a few of the responses from them that I have presented in my book, The Young Musician's Survival Guide, which has just been released in a newly updated and greatly expanded second edition.

From Joshua Bell, Grammy-winning violinist:
"'My mother insisted I practice violin every day, even if only for half an hour. Then I could do other things,' he reports. 'I had plenty of fights about not wanting to practice. I liked practicing much of the time, just not always.' In his mid-teens, he went through a phase of sometimes taking off several days. 'I goofed off a little too much then. I was able to learn quickly and pull everything together a few days before a lesson.'" (Page 23)

From Wynton Marsalis, Grammy-winning trumpeter and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer:
"'Before eighth grade, I didn't want to play music. I wanted to play basketball,' says Wynton Marsalis, who first tooted a trumpet at age six. This future Grammy winner took some lessons in elementary school and was in the school band, but he didn't practice much. Instead he practiced basketball