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

The Sights, Sounds, Touch and Movements of Playing

Awareness of the body’s rich sensory feedback is an essential component of expressive music-making.

What are your awareness habits?

Think about your awareness habits as you play.  What is in your awareness you play?  To get an idea of your awareness habits, play a piece or etude then answer the following questions:

Would you describe your awareness as concentrating?

Does your focus shift as you play or is it fixed on one thing?

Do you ever hear the note you are playing, feel movement in your body, see the space, and feel the instrument in your hands as you play?

Barbara Conable author of “What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body” coined the term, Inclusive Awareness to describe the ideal state of awareness for making-music.  Inclusive awareness allows us to be internally and externally aware,  and to focus on a particular element without losing awareness of others.  

Philanthropists to the Rescue: Should We Save European Arts the American Way?

I was somewhat surprised to see the New York Times article this week examining how the global recession has created a significant decline in public financing for arts in Eurozone countries. Maybe I should clarify; it’s not surprising to see this cause and effect scenario played out, rather that the American media all of a sudden realized that this is worthy of our attention. But can the American arts funding model be an answer to European woes?

Changing an Orchestra Program to Meet the Needs of All Students Part II: Birth of a Chamber Orchestra

In my last post, I addressed the circumstances facing the Richmond County Orchestra (RCO) high school directors Trent Henderson and Philip Rhodes in the spring of 2003. Directing a large orchestra with a wide gap between the most accomplished musicians (who were ready to master music on GMEA* level V and beyond) and the less experienced ones (who may have been struggling to play GMEA* level IV) inspired them to try something unprecedented; they created a new orchestra on a temporary, invitation-only basis for the remaining couple of months of the school year. Eventually this group became the Richmond County High School Chamber Orchestra.

“Create a new orchestra? Is there room for that? Do we have the time to carve out of our already hectic schedules for that? What will the other faculty members think?”

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

Ideas and Trends that are Changing our Lives

Innovation around the web: Creative insights combining business and spirituality…

Click for video from the Wisdom 2.0 Conference.   Latest Fast Company list of 50 most innovative companies, Economist Article: Jeff Bezos and long term innovation, Forbes Article: Your Mental Model of Innovation, 

For more on creativity from Adam, use search field (top left) or click on keywords (bottom right) on his Innovation on my Mind blog.

A recent issue of Time Magazine explored the breakthrough, game-changing phenomenon of YouTube, where 60 hours of video are now uploaded every single minute.  That’s 10 years of video every day. We all have a sense that new technology is changing us as people–both as individual beings and how we connect with others, but we’re not sure how.  Is it okay that we talk with and see each other less despite having more “friends”?  Is it good that we have so much information–some of it outdated or biased or amateurish–at our fingertips? Are we happier and are our lives more fulfilling compared to life before YouTube or smart phones or the Internet or answering machines or word processors?

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