Weekly Digest: Ready, set, stop!, From fear to freedom, Flute stuff coming up

Ready, set, stop! A different kind of preparation

How to go from fear to freedom, one step at a time

Free e-book from Seth Godin, Stop Stealing Dreams

Seth Godin on happiness and enjoying where we are

Teaching kids contemporary music and French parents boycotting homework

Making opera innovative

So Percussion and their model of success

The hospitality of composer Jennifer Higdon

Thoughts on the artistic thinking process

Creativity, the key skill of the 21st century

Dealing with onstage distractions, from the Musician’s Way

El-sistema inspired Play On Philly looking for Teaching Artists, application deadline is April 15, 2012

Hear/Now Festival in Pittsburgh, Friday & Saturday, April 13 & 14, also here

FLUTE RELATED LINKS OF INTEREST:

The Rochester Flute Association Flute Fair 2012 will be November 9-10, 2012.  The guest artist is Marina Piccinini.  If you would like to participate in the RFA’s Annual Flute Fair by organizing and presenting a 45-50 minute workshop, concert, reading session, panel discussion, class, or other type of event, fill out the Event Proposal Form in as much detail as possible. Return your completed event proposal form  to Meghan Knitter, RFA Flute Fair Co-Chair, by June 1. You can locate this form on the RFA website, www.rfaonline.org/flutefair. Presentations for Flute Fair will be held on Saturday, November 10th between 9 am and 1 pm.

Flutist Helen Bledsoe on singing and playing

Oberlin Flute Academy and Flute Workshop info here

International Flute Symposium at West Virginia University July 17-22, 2012, with Lorna McGhee, Elizabeth Buck, Christopher Chaffee, Alberto Almarza, Zachariah Galatis, Michele Gori, The Fourth Wall

Weekly Digest: How to be brave, This is your brain…on music, What’s your hook?

How to be brave (fantastic!)

A Contest! With prizes and everything! (or, the best advice you’ve ever received)

Art Talk with Margaret Martin of the Harmony Project

Call to Reinstate Benjamin Zander as Conductor of YPO

What Happens after the Premiere?

Where do Audiences come from?

How do musicians really make their livings?

What’s your hook?

Great insight into practicing

A helpful list of women composers

Renee Fleming and Yo Yo Ma tout arts education in Chicago

Why Arts Education matters, several videos of interest

Classical Music Boosts Heart Transplant Survival in Mice

Advice from Edna on getting advice

Tips on getting your pitch up

This is your brain…on music

Weekly Digest: Private Music Teachers, Lessons from Einstein, Pauline Oliveros, Is Silence Going Extinct?

Is Silence Going Extinct?

Excellent resource for private music teachers and making a living

Where does all your private lesson tuition go?

Marketing private lessons 101

Creative Time Management for all of us

Check out the Online Resource Center at Carnegie Hall

Weekly Digest: The Chromatic Tambin (a new flute), The Power of Habits, Music and Emotion–Enough!

COOL FLUTE NEWS

The Chromatic Tambin, a new flute, has been invented by Quebecois instrumentalist Sylvain Leroux, who will unveil and demonstrate it at the New York Flute Fair on Saturday, March 24. Leroux will introduce the Chromatic Tambin, his innovative re-design of the traditional Guinean three-holed, side-blown tambin during a group concert entitled “The Dynamic Flute.” The new instrument has extraordinary possibilities.

By adding three new, carefully placed finger holes to the traditional tambin (aka Fula flute), Leroux has rendered a unique and age-old instrument capable of virtuosic playing. Its voice can now be applied to every musical style from jazz to classical composition. Until now the tambin has been limited to basic modal scales, although its exquisitely simple construction has promoted the development of highly complex performance fundamentals. Leroux’s Chromatic Tambin retains all the powerful vocal/flute effects of its parent instrument, but with new chromatic possibilities. That and low cost suggests potential applications in music education, particularly in the Third World were access to equipment is often problematic.

The Chromatic Tambin has a one-and-half octave range, and can produce the 12 notes of the standard Western chromatic scale. Leroux’s invention presents flutists across the world with a universe of creative possibilities in an organic instrument. Because of its structure, it also throws a new light on tonal organization and solves the problems it creates simply and elegantly.

The New York Flute Fair is an event sponsored by the New York Flute Club and will take place at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 West 37th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues), New York, NY on Saturday March 24. This year’s guest artist is Amy Porter. To attend please visit the NY Flute Club Website at: http://www.nyfluteclub.org/html/flute_fair.html

For further information please contact: fulaflute@gmail.com, or visit www.fulaflute.net

LINKS OF INTEREST

Online training in Mindfulness

Dan Pink on the power of habits

Are good performers necessarily good teachers?

Cellist Fred Sherry on being a Maverick

Japan, one year later:  Torn apart by disaster, bound by jazz

Alex Ross says, enough about how music makes us feel, already

Venerated High Priest and Humble Servant of Music Education

Composer Florence Price, Rediscovered

Musical Dreams in Afghanistan

From the Savvy Musician:  9 Reasons Most Websites Fail

Paul-Edmund Davies Teaching Videos (Thanks to Jen Cluff)

Flute Summer Course 2012 by Dutch flutist/composer Wil Offermans is now open for registration. This 21st edition of this renown course will take place from August 18th until 25th, 2012, in Sayalonga (Malaga), Spain. The course is open for flute students, flutists and flute teachers from all over the world. www.flutesummercourse.com

VIDEO OF THE WEEK, from Orchkids in Baltimore (this is an inspired music concert, check it out!):

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Weekly Digest: Institute for Musicianship and Public Service, Lorna McGhee, Make Mistakes!

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Institute for Musicianship and Public Service
Are you a musician interested in combining your artistry with public service? You may be a candidate for our four-day professional development opportunity, May 31 through June 3, supported by the Mellon Foundation. Applications are due by March 23. Learn more HERE.

Weekly Digest: Community Supported Agriculture (or Arts?), Fluteboxing, Talent or Practice?

Free fluteboxing workbook

NEA’s article on Innovation

Talent or Practice, which matters more?

Little Free Libraries Popping Up

Gordon Music Learning Theory Workshops, Buffalo, NY

Kickstarter expects to provide more funding to arts than NEA

Sir Ken Robinson on leading the learning revolution

Phillip Glass turns 75

A musical tour of Mexico‘s last 200 years

Love to learn?

Go Easy on Yourself, New Research Urges

Community Supported Agriculture, I mean Arts

Support your locally grown artists!

Quote of the week:
“To find out what one is fitted to do and to secure an opportunity to do it is key to happiness.”
— John Dewey

Image from:

http://blogs.walkerart.org/mnartists/files/2010/03/CSA-big.jpg

Weekly Digest Takes an Unexpected Week Off….

Due to life circumstances, the weekly digest needed a vacation this week.

See you next week!

 

Weekly Digest: Learning by Ear, Spouting and Scouting, Write Your Obituary

Fabulous flute warmups from Jen Cluff, free downloads!

9 essential skills kids should learn

Highlights from this week’s ArtsJournal:

• 31 categories Grammy organizers cut
• Pittsburgh symphony looks for concerto soloist via YouTube
• Why is it so hard for new musical instruments to catch on?
• Reinventing classical music, in pubs
• Benjamin Zander on his firing from NEC
• Meryl Streep on her opera training

The latest from Astrid Baumgardner, Why You Need to Plan and and Why The Result Isn’t Important!

And the latest  from the Savvy Musician, the mistake that topples careers and industries

Seth Godin being clever on Spouting and Scouting (talking about what we care about and looking at what others are talking about)

From Angela Beeching’s Monday Bytes:  check out author Brad Meltzer and this inspirational 16 minute video and consider writing your own obituary

Want to be more creative? Be nice to yourself

So you think you know?  More on Alexander Technique at Cello Bello

Some upcoming professional development opportunities:

• Global Learning Studio Summer Professional Development Workshop at the American School in London, June 18-22
• Americans for the Arts 2012 Annual Convention, June 8-10 in San Antonio, TX, earlybird reg. is Fri, April 27
• CMS Film-Music Pedagogy Institute, May 14-17, 2012, The University of Miami, Frost School of Music
• Your Body is Your Strad: Feldenkrais for Musicians (In conjunction with the 2012 National Summer Cello Institute), June 1-16, 2012, University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Music
• Road of Creativity’s Music Entrepreneurship Retreat, June 3-9, 2012, University of South Carolina School of Music
  Columbia, South Carolina
• Summerflute, What Every Flutist Needs to Know About the Body, the Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method®, June 25-29, 2012, Columbus, Georgia

Quote of the week, from Improv Insights:

Removing the musician’s eyes from the process of making music can produce truly astonishing results. You can use a blindfold, turn off the lights, play by candlelight, or ask everyone to close their eyes. Whichever method you use, you will hear a dramatic increase in the group’s musicianship almost immediately. Members of the ensemble will listen more carefully and be more aware of how they use their bodies to produce sound.

Learning by ear, rather than by eye, utilizes the brain in a completely different manner: one that is more consistent with the mental hierarchy we need to be truly great musicians.

–Julie Lyonn Lieberman, The Creative Band & Orchestra

And, speaking of learning by ear…Read about an innovative project with Grade 7 beginning band students at Southridge School in British Columbia (Canada).  They worked collaboratively in groups, learned songs by ear and arranged them for performances, based on Musical Futures out of the UK.

Students at Southridge School in British Columbia

Images from

http://www.pianomother.com/assets/images/17-Music-by-ear-PG17-978×1024.jpg

http://www.musicalfutures.org/resource/27698

Weekly Digest: IPAP’s Birthday, Gustavo and Elmo, Practice in Color, Pomodoros!

Some ideas about how to practice color

Any Promising Students?  From the Eclectic Musician, a new blog I discovered this week

Seth Godin asks:  Who is Your Customer?

And, ever seen a timid trapeze artist?

Get a Feel for Fees and see how musicians can use technology to their advantage

From Angela Beeching’s Monday Bytes….I’m using the Pomodoro technique to write this week’s Weekly Digest!

Five minute intro video–

More Pomodoro– here’s a free pdf and the Pomodoro website

Laura’s favorite Pomodoro timer

Five emerging chamber groups discuss programming, publicity, and life on the road

Music Entrepreneurship Retreat, June 3-9!

Arts Enterprise 2012 Summit:  The Creative Economy and You,  March 23-25!

Visualizing classical music as a roller coaster ride

Want To Improve Your Technical Facility? Pay Attention To Your Sound

Improv Game, Substitution (it’s fun AND easy!!)

Traits and Abilities of Creative Thinkers

Why French Parents are Superior (some ideas for parenting and teaching)

Best Practices for Grant Seekers

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

Gustavo Dudamel and Elmo on Sesame Street

UPCOMING DEADLINE:

Extended application deadline for 2012 – 2013 Fellows Program at NEC

The “Take A Stand” Symposium in LA prompted many inquiries about the Fellows Program, after the original deadline passed.  NEC has generously extended the deadline to February 17, 2012.  It’s not to late to apply for this life-changing, tuition-free, executive leadership program that advances the El Sistema movement in the U.S.  For further information, visit: necmusic.edu/abreu-fellowship.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

“It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive. “  –C.W. Leadbeater

“Associate with people who are likely to improve you.”  –Seneca

“The huge spiritual world that music produces in itself, ends up overcoming material poverty. From the minute a child’s taught how to play an instrument, he’s no longer poor. He becomes a child in progress, heading for a professional level, who’ll later become a citizen.”  –Dr. José Antonio Abreu

UPCOMING BODY MAPPING WORKSHOP IN NEW ENGLAND:

And, lastly, IPAP celebrates ONE YEAR this month!  Happy Birthday to us!

Weekly Digest: Effective Practice, It’s Up to You, Take A Stand

The improv game, AMAPFALAP = “as much as possible from as little as possible,” invented by W. A. Matthieu in The Listening Book

NEC and the Firing of Benjamin Zander

Sweden’s School Without Walls

Harmony Project gets featured on ABC news

An ArtsJournal Discussion | Jan. 23-27, 2012, on Audience Engagement

Rather than losing his temper, this musician adapted the notorious Nokia theme, much to the delight of his audience

Bill T. Jones does John Cage

Q2 Interview:  Composer-Performer Du Yun Talks Chinese Opera and Electronic Music

Great advice on writing cover letters and why it is essential to think and act entrepreneurially

The 3 Levels of Effective Practice

The Case for Active Practicing

Become a confident performer

Seth Godin says it’s completely up to you

And start singing!

Celtic music fans! Boxwood Canada 2012 registration is now open

Final note:  Next week in LA, the Take a Stand 2012 Symposium takes place, and I will be going as a YOLA Ambassador.  The Weekly Digest will be off next week, and look for blog posts about El Sistema and my experiences there when I return!

In the meantime have a listen to this radio program from WHYY Radio Times from 1/23/12 featuring Stanford Thompson, Executive Director of Play On Philly, Jamie Bernstein, who is working on a new documentary on El Sistema, and Tricia Tunstall, the author of the new book, Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformatiive Power of Music. Go to: http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2012/01/24/15442/