Educate Your Audience

My title might be a little off the subject of the following article, but is seriously related. My goal as a music educator is not to prepare everyone to be the most fabulous and stunning musicians America has to offer, but to stir the public's interest and train our youth in musical taste and appreciation towards classical music and the concert hall. I can preach to you in person if you'd like. Read on about China. I've had the pleasure of studying in Hungary with a young female pianist from Shang-hai. She definitely fits the mold of the society described in this story. She was inspiring to say the least. Not to worry; I'm sure well turn it around. Someday.


Classical Music Looks Toward China With Hope

China has become a considerable force in Western classical music as the art form declines in Europe and the U.S.

Year Zero

As silly as it sounds, Trent Reznor's YEAR ZERO marketing strategy is filling my head day and night with thoughts of conspiracy, terrorism, futuristic art and noisy music. It all started with a code-breaker and a tour shirt in Portugal. Four songs later along with the bombing of the 81st Oscars (see following article) and I am living the digital hype of Nine Inch Nails new album. It's times like these where I get to feel like a music dork and dig myself into an intriguing conceptual art form. Even Rolling Stone Magazine's website is covering the craze! Speaking of R.S., here's the whole story:

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/02/28/year-zero-project-fahrenheit-nin/

You watch the Grammys?

When I was a young kid, I remember watching a recorded VHS of Billy Joel's performance of "We Didn't Start the Fire" live on the Grammy Awards (I forgot the year; early 90's). I was mesmerized! I stood four inches from the TV and self-taught myself how to stop, rewind, play, and then rewind the recording on the VCR. Oh the video screens, showing graphics of burning buildings and world poverty...the bright flamethrowers blasting an inferno into the music hall of sharply-dressed nominees. From that moment, I looked forward to the February awards ceremony that my father would annually tape-record.

Time changes life and all of it's creations. We went from groundbreaking grunge to classic alternative, to rap-rock, hip-hop, and R&B. Now I ask, "Who's going to be performing? When are the Grammys? I thought they were in the Fall. That's considered a hard-rock performance?" There's other questions and inadequate answers to all of this. Should we be honoring what the public bought the most of in the last breath of dying record industry or should we be praising what is artistic and creative in today's ever changing world of music; both popular and classical?

Actually, who still watches the Grammys?