| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Oliver Sacks | ||||
| ||||
It's so nice to hear this kind of information about music presented in a fun and entertaining atmosphere without it being packaged and turned into a 'save the music' battle cry.
Music educators might learn a lesson from other disciplines (like golf for example), who have done a brilliant job of marketing outside of academia and across all gender and age groups including professional adults and seniors. Maybe then our profession would thrive both inside and outside of academia, and we would not be held captive by budget cuts or the whim of indifferent school boards.
A guy can dream can't he?
1 comment:
Hi Eugene,
Thanks for your comments on my blog! I agree with your concerns about the 'save the music!' battle cries. I think there is a lot that could be learned from sports, as you suggest. For many years, I worked with the Melbourne Symphony, charged with the task of engaging members of the orchestra with the wider community. It was an uphill battle sometimes with getting musician enthusiasm (beyond a dedicated core team), and genuine backing and support from the management team.... yet if I look at the AFL (Australian Rules Football, essentially a religion for most people here) they put a lot of effort into building up their community bases, and have succeeded well in giving the youngest players a strong sense of the continuum they are a part of, that what they do in the Saturday morning Auskick classes differs from what the pro players do in their matches only by degree. They have all sorts of clever - but authentic, and meaningful - ways of giving even their youngest supporters (and all the others in the team) part of the whole AFL family and culture.
There is lots that the arts (and classical music in particular) could do differently. We need to avoid a sense of victimhood, or righteousness, and find new ways to share our love of music with others so that it is meaningful, relevant, exciting, fulfilling...
Some great posts - thanks!
Post a Comment