Merit Honors Flute Quartet Advances in Competition!

Congratulations to my chamber group at Merit School of Music!!! They are one of four ensembles selected to be finalists in the 2009 Jules M. Laser Chamber Music Competition co-sponsored by Music in the Loft and Society of American Musicians. Their competition repertoire will be the first movement of Dubois's Quatuor and The Easter Islander by Mike Mower. The final round of the competition will be held at the Music Institute of Chicago in Evanston on Sunday, January 18th. This is a really nice acknowledgement of how hard the students have been working since September. Besides their weekly coaching with me, they also rehearse independently a second time during the week and take turns writing up rehearsal notes to reflect on what they accomplished. Good luck Leen, Katie, Julia and Jingyi; I couldn't be more pleased for you!!!!!

Drat the flu!

Well, it happened. I got the stomach flu and it sidelined me for three solid days. I missed some great student concerts that I had been looking forward to hearing and fell behind with my desk work at the office. (Processing faculty payroll comes before all else!) So, I sadly cancelled my plans to attend the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. Next year will be my year to go!

Merit Honors Flute Quartet debuts on YouTube!

We're planning to apply to perform on "From the Top" and the application asked if the group has a YouTube clip (hint, hint...). So, this past Saturday, we performed for the weekly Tuition Free Conservatory assembly and then headed back upstairs to our regular classroom for a few more takes. Here is Pierre Max Dubois's Quatuor as performed by Jingyi Liu, Julia McGehee, Katie Scotkowski and Leen van Besien. Many thanks to Mr. McGehee for being our cameraman!!

Classroom Management Discussion Group

My present position is as Director of Bridges: Partners in Music, the offsite instruction program of Merit School of Music. Approximately 50 Merit teachers go out into schools and community based programs to provide weekly classes in instrumental, choral and general music. Often the teaching conditions are quite challenging. This summer, I offered a structured opportunity for interested faculty to read and discuss The First Days of School by Harry and Rosemary Wong. This link will take you to the agenda and discussion guide that I created for this series of three meetings.

Beginning Flute Pedagogy (October 12, 2008)

As part of the Chicago Flute Club's yearlong series of pedadgogy events, I'll be presenting a workshop on first flute lessons this coming Sunday. The event is at 2:00 at Suzuki-Orff School of Music (1148 W. Chicago Avenue). Please click here for more details!

You can also follow this second link to my handouts for the workshop.

Television Appearance (June 12, 2007)

Summer before last, I and my flute quartet from Merit School of Music were invited to make a live appearance on ABC's morning news at 11. I spoke about the benefits of instrumental music instruction and how to get children started. My students also performed and there was a video link of the segment that was up on ABC's website for a limited period of time. The link here takes you to the article that I wrote for ABC's website.

Merit Honors Flute Quartet Performs Live on WFMT (May 24, 2008)

My flute quartet from Merit School of Music was invited to play on WFMT's Introductions last May. Introductions is a live show featuring student musical talent from all over Chicago. For this performance, the students played Bozza's quartet as well as Mike Mower's jazzy Easter Islander. Follow these links to photos and the Introductions podcast.

As Heard on this CD

I really enjoyed being involved with this CD project! Dancing on the Edge of the Volcano is on the Chicago based Cedille label and features Jewish cabaret music from early 20th century Vienna.

Audacity

I've just learned about Audacity which is free Open Source Software. I downloaded it and found it easy to get going with recording myself just using my Mac's built-in mike. The sound quality is good enough for self-analysis so I think that this will be a great new tool in my teaching and personal practicing!