November 4.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re heading into an election. Here at the school we’re busy planning our second break-out theme day of the year which will coincide with election day. On November 4th, we’ll cancel academic and arts classes and spend the day studying, celebrating, criticizing, analyzing, satirizing, replicating and breathlessly observing the election. Some kids are giving candidate speeches. Others are studying political cartoons, satirical websites. Faculty and kids are teamed up to study all of the propositions on the California ballot. My group, along with Melissa Wilson, chief of all things graphic, is reporting the entire day, doing interviews, on-the-spot photos, commentary, and then will publish a paper in the afternoon! I know nothing about this, so our kids better teach me how!
Sometime during the day we faculty will all get to town to vote, along with our 18 year-olds on campus.
Then at 5 or so, we’ll all start to watch the election returns together. On a televisionless campus, this requires a satellite feed. Well worth it. This could be the most electrifying day of the year. Certainly it will make history. We’re either going to leave November 4th with and African American President or a Female Vice President. Such an event surely must be worthy of notice for all of our artistic disciplines! If you’re around on election day please stop by. Just be sure to have on your “I just voted” sticker!
1 comment October 23, 2008
Who are those older people?
Who are those older people?
We’re heading into family weekend, and usually on family weekend the music department has its first orchestra concert. This year is no exception and Peter has planned a wonderful program of Janacek, Ginastera and Beethoven. If you’ve been to an IAAO concert before, you’ve probably noticed a few older faces in the group and wondered why they were there. I mean, can’t these kids play by themselves? Of course they can. But these older players serve a number of purposes for us. They provide an educational opportunity that’s rich in tradition.
First, the amount of music written for a chamber orchestra is pretty limited, music written for 30 or so players. In fact, most of it is limited to a much older style, the Baroque and Classical periods, Bach through Mozart and Beethoven. Later composers wrote for larger groups with a larger, louder concept of sound. These extra players enable us to expose our young people to all eras of music, a broader palate of technique, strength, color. Second, sometimes a piece of music calls for an instrument we don’t have in residence at the school, like harp, but the music provides an educational opportunity to make it worth it. Enough said. Third, and this is really the thing: Intermingling a few older players with more experience into a youthful group instantly makes the rest of the players better. Notice I didn’t say makes the orchestra better. I said it makes the players better. It’s an important distinction. Students that normally would forget to have a pencil in rehearsal suddenly always have one. Violinists sit a little straighter, react a little more quickly. Horn players mimic the seasoned behavior of their stand partner. I remember when I was a teenager the first time I sat down and played a two-piano piece with my teacher. Wow. I remember the place, the time of day, what the piano was like, the red carpet on the floor of the piano studio. I could INSTANTLY play 10 times better than I could have 5 minutes before. I knew at that moment what true musical energy was and that I’d never given it before then. I was a better player.
Our orchestra continues in the rich tradition of music festivals such as Marlborough and Aspen. In the Aspen orchestra the faculty actually sit in the principal seats and the students fill out the sections. We tend to do it in reverse, adding a violinist at the back, a horn player sitting there to assist if the student doesn’t budget the energy quite right, an extra percussion player helping to coordinate the always-complicated percussion player choreography. But it doesn’t matter, the result is the same. Our students, like the students at Aspen and Marlborough make months of progress in one weekend. It’s like the musical fast track. And at the same time we get to enjoy the music. It’s Beethoven 7 this weekend. Doesn’t get much better than that.
3 comments October 17, 2008
Meet the professor.
Meet the Professor is an education enrichment program for the interested townspeople of Idyllwild. It takes place on Wednesdays, during the dinner hour, consisting of social time, a lecture or program of some sort, and then, of course, dinner with the professor. Several of the events scheduled for this year feature the faculty of Idyllwild Arts. Last night it was Howard Shangraw, giving a talk on the redemptive power of the theatre. To do this he invited some of our theatre students who are busy rehearsing their first play of the year. “Our Country’s Good” by Timberlake Wertenbaker, is all about the redemptive power of theatre. It’s about a group of English convicts sent to an Australian penal colony who put on a play. I won’t give away any more.
It’s such a testament to the skill of our young actors that they can enter a room, with no costumes or props, and use only voice and physical expression to take us into another world. I don’t have a clue how they do that. Time to sit in on an acting class.
“Our Country’s Good,” October 31 and November 1 at 7:30 pm, and November 2 at 2 pm. IAF Theatre. See you there.
Add comment October 16, 2008
Progress reports!
This one is mostly for you parents out there. Anna and I have been looking through your kids’ progress reports. Well, I’ve been mostly scanning them, I probably missed a few periods and capitals in there, I read fast and was in a bit of a hurry. Anyway, the progress report is our first official “check” of how students are doing. Mostly it gives us an opportunity to provide continued encouragement or a heads up if something’s going wrong, BEFORE a grade is assigned. It’s a snapshot really, or more correctly a snapshot with a correction. Reading the reports was an education for me yesterday! Before I started doing the Dean job, I read only my students’ reports or as chair I sometimes read all of the reports of one faculty member. But now I’m reading the reports of all of the students in the school, so it follows that I’m reading the reports of all the teachers in the school! Some classes have met three times a week for the past five weeks. Some have met once a week, some like private music lessons haven’t met enough to really inspire a very useful comment at all.
It became clear to me that the report means something different to all of us who are giving them. Some are mathematically precise, factored numerically down to the decimal. Others note nuances in attitude, emotion, things we pick up as indicators of what’s going to happen down the road. This variances are how it should be, I think. Does a dancer thoughtfully take a correction in class or resist? How does the visual artist respond to provocation about their conception? Are they open to critique and challenge? I’m certainly never “counting” wrong notes in the piano lesson. I admit I have no idea precisely how many wrong notes are okay, but there certainly is an intuitive place beyond which I say “Hey!” play the right notes please! Or, you wanna try that again with the notes Bach wrote?
Back in the distant past, like, say, the 90s, we had a much less computerized (which is to say MORE computer-like) grading system. We gave grades and selected a number that corresponded to the most accurate comment we could find in a long list. 1. Great job! 2. A pleasure to have in class! My favorite–27. Attitude of superiority is not conducive to arts training. Okay, I never used that one, but it was useful to threaten. We still can, and sometimes need to. We just can’t speak in code!
Enjoy the reports.
2 comments October 10, 2008
Blown away.
Shockingly good. Full to overflowing. Inspiring, provocative, loud, soft, unbelievably cool, amazing. Some of my knee-jerk adjectives for the Kronos Quartet’s concert on Saturday. It’s so exciting to hear music you’ve never heard before! Who knew that rosin would fly off of a bow that was flicked violently into the air? Who ever thought that flying rosin might be a cool or even moving effect in a piece of music???
But Sunday morning’s workshop was different. Special, intimate, life changing. Okay, I missed the performance of Terry Riley’s “In C” because I had to go to the dining hall and request late lunch for our student participants. Plus, two guests wanted to play along, and I had to scare up a cello and a violin for them to use. Plus bows. What do I know about bows and violins? Not much, but I guess the ones I found were okay. Drew and Co. in the dining hall get big snaps because this kind of thing is just no big deal for them and they get what wondrous things our kids are doing. Staying open late is no problem.
But I returned for the informal Q and A with Kronos, everyone sitting casually on the IAF stage. I can say that I’ve been proud of our students before for their remarkable performing and artistic output. But I was blown away yesterday morning by the remarkable thoughtfulness of our kids. They listen, they think, they question. They asked questions I’d never thought of! They heard things I didn’t hear! Ellie asked if the recorded music from the concert was looped or if it was recorded in advance. WHAT?
“Well,” the Quartet said, “it is supposed to be looped but we decided that it was too risky to do that so we prerecorded it. How observant of you to notice.” Huh? I mean that kind of listening and thinking.
I am so proud of our students. They can share a conversation with the greatest musicians in the world. They are sharing a conversation with the greatest musicians in the world.
1 comment October 6, 2008
What a weekend (2)!
Last time I wrote that subject line it was meant in the past tense. This time I’m referring to the one coming up! First we have a guest recital, my piano teacher from age 17-23 along with his wife, Aldo and Judith Mancinelli will be playing a duo piano recital in Stephens on Friday. First we’ll have a masterclass with them today. This is a wonderful link up for our students, because he is a connection to the grand twentieth century of American and European piano playing. Some of his teachers were Claudio Arrau and Carlo Zecchi, pianists our kids have only heard on recordings or read about in books.
Friday we have the previously mentioned college fair, two of its participants will be giving classes to our students, Lina Bahn from the University of Colorado will give a violin class, and Daniel Ebbers from University of the Pacific will give a voice class.
Saturday we’re very lucky to have the world famous Kronos Quartet in residency on our campus! They’ll do an open dress rehearsal in IAF Theatre at 3, then a concert at 7:30. Sunday morning they’ll reconvene at IAF at 10 and do a workshop with music students. The subject is Terry Riley’s In C, a piece which features patterns played in repetition or sequence over a steady drone, in this case a couple of C’s. This is the fourth installment of what has become a tradition of Quartet guests–including the Juilliard, Calder and Miro–working with our students.
Dancers, Interdisciplinarians(does that noun work?) and others are going to the Shen Wei
Dance performance in Orange County on Sunday! Shen Wei is of recent fame for the opening ceremony of the Olympics, among other things of course. The Interdisciplinarians are also participating in the Halloween Haunt in the town of Idyllwild for the local kids.
Pick and choose everyone, prioritize carefully, go to what’s required for your major and then some.
Oh, and the SAT is Saturday morning! Luckily, we’re our own testing center, so seniors: sleep as long as you can, EAT BREAKFAST, and stumble over to Stephens or Rush and good luck!
1 comment October 2, 2008
wow.
What a fun place this is to teach. 10 minutes ago, Kitty just heard her first Dona Nobis Pacem from Bach’s B minor Mass. And I got to be here. It’s a really big fugue, full of truth, honesty, directness and one of the most perfect examples of the use of Timpani for the greater good. Dozens of folks on the stage doing different things(or the same thing all at different times), getting along perfectly well, parts colliding, the collisions of which provide the hope and the joy. Kitty’s playing a fugue too, and now hers just sounds joyous, too, noisy and fun, instead of labored and overthought. Sometimes it’s so much better to let others do the teaching.
1 comment September 26, 2008
Eco Day!
Eco day was Monday! In order to help build community, encourage the students from different majors and faculty to intermix, focus attention on a topic or issue that doesn’t get much attention in our arts/academic centric community, and give a mental break from our routine, we have days interspersed throughout the year called “theme days.”
The first was Monday, providing a revisitation of a topic we first explored last February. We rehabilitated the nature trail, built a raptor perch, planted trees, worked on the greenhouse, studied recycling. These events provide such an opportunity: it’s so instructive to a faculty member to see a young lady who so willing wields a bow or pen absolutely refuse to wield a rake or shovel. On the other hand, how fun to see a young actor revel in being the ONE person in the group who has experience in pouring concrete, take charge of the situation, and lead the others in replacing the signs on the nature trail.
One might ask, what does the Eco topic have to do with an arts school? Well, to borrow from Al Gore, if we don’t take care of our planet, we’re really not going to have much use for art, are we?
Our next theme day is November 4, with activities surrounding the election. What does that have to do with art? Well…
1 comment September 23, 2008
More on preprofessional training.
I thought that after that last blog it might be good to include some concrete examples of how a pianist might practice in such a way as to make sure he “cannot go wrong.” Maybe one of these days I’ll be able to prevail upon one of my other performing colleagues in theatre or dance to address this in relation to their disciplines, but for now I have to stick to the piano because it’s what I know best.
First, we have to determine whether or not we’re talking about chamber music or solo repertoire. Why? Because of memory. Solo music is played from memory. Yes, there are a few great artists that put the music up, but the rest of us just don’t really have the option of walking out on the stage carrying the book. Playing from memory catapults performance stress into the stratosphere.
So let’s start with chamber music. No memory and you get to sit on the stage with people you like! It’s all good. You still have to be fast, slow, accurate, confident, poetic. So. You decipher the notes on the page, you determine which fingers play which notes, you play slowly and accurately, moving up the speed little by little until you can play accurately at the right speed. You learn the piece. Someone not planning on being a professional pianist or performing the piece publicly might stop there. But I wouldn’t. I would then take the piece apart again, practicing–not learning now, but practicing–in different ways. For a long passage of fast notes I might want to make sure that I’m playing every single note confidently and accurately. So I might practice a few times playing the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, etc note louder than the others. Then I might go back and play the 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc notes louder. Then I might want to make sure that my arm is putting my hand in the optimal place: so I play the passage with minimal finger movement, relying on rotation (think twisting a door knob) to slap my fingers down, trusting that my arm will retain a subtle version of that motion when my fingers are reactivated. Then I might switch it, using only my fingers, being sure to raise each one before it goes down—if a finger consistently doesn’t press a key down at the right time it’s a good bet that it’s already down! So you have to practice lifting each one, ensuring that each finger is ready to make good on the adage “what goes up has to come down.” Or more accurately in this case, “what needs to go down must first come up!”
I play the piece slower than I imagine it should go. I practice it faster than it should go. I play louder, developing a very distinct impression on my muscles for the location and order of every key. I turn the metronome on (almost always) to make sure that no inconsistencies of speed creep in. I practice the first movement first and the first movement last. I practice the last movement first and the last movement last. I practice the last movement at the end of a long practice session so that I know I’ll be able to do it when I’m tired, as I will be when the last movement comes at its rightful place at the end of the piece.
Oh, and then there’s the problem of those other players! You have to be together when you play chamber music. In order to do that you have to know their part(s). So, I practice playing my part while singing their parts. No laughing please. I practice playing my part while keeping my eyes focused on their parts. I practice playing my part while looking away from the piano.
So this is a little glimpse into what one pianist does in order to feel confident that every performance is going to be good. Did you ever wonder why piano players practice so much? And we haven’t even talked about memory yet! Another day.
1 comment September 22, 2008
