Most of the Orchestra students are familiar with "The Dude" -- Mr. Brookes has shown videos of his performances during class.
This is an extraordinary PBS segment from Tavis Smiley Reports. It premiered a few days ago on one of our local PBS stations. Check for future broadcasts here at the link. You can also view this episode below:
Watch the full episode. See more Tavis Smiley.
Please pass this video around to ALL music lovers.
Here are a few random comments about Dudamel, El Sistema, and the importance of Music Education in our schools.
"There are not enough conductors reaching out on a national level to promote music education, so Bravo! We must fight our school boards to get music back into educational MAINSTREAM. The deeper benefits that music teaches; self discpline, working together under emotionally charged circumstances, articulating deeper concepts, pride in ones personal challenges, finding one's own uniqueness, reward from sheer hard work, all of these are incredibly important values we are NOT teaching our kids. Yes, sports CAN teach these things but aren't and there should be a balance. Culture is not the snotty elitist phenomenon that some people think. Culture is building the person from the inside out and appreciating what your fellow man is able to accomplish. Today what do we have? Vidoe games, the internet, learning to express hatred via tweets and what have you. Music teaches us confidence without arrogance. Humility without humiliation, and there is nothing more tragic than a kid who has arrogance without confidence."
"The fact of the matter is most schools would rather spend a million dollars installing an artificial turf football field for the benefit of 40-50 students and hiring a football coach at 2-3 times the salary of the highest paid teacher than provide a meaningful arts education to every student"
"David Hume said that contiguity does not imply causality. Those exposed to music education include the children of the wealthy, the prosperous and the highly educated. Being part of, or placed alongside, that demographic through music education may lead to changes in aspiration but it does not mean that musical education is fundamental cause of success.
Music education should be promoted as an end in itself. Music is an end in itself. There is no need to justify it in terms of it playing some role in a socio-economic improvement fantasy.
Cultural education does not need justification. It is those who oppose it, or who will not finance it, who should justify their choice to deprive children of cultural education."
Comments from Maestro Jose Antonio Abreu --
“The huge spiritual world that music produces in itself, ends up overcoming material poverty. From the minute a child’s taught how to play an instrument, he’s no longer poor. He becomes a child in progress, heading for a professional level, who’ll later become a citizen”
“The orchestra and choir are much more than artistic studies. They are examples and schools of social life. To sing and to play together, means to intimately coexist”
“Music is immensely important in the awakening of sensibility, in the forging of values and in the training of youngsters to teach others”
Related Posts from the blog:
The Consequences of Curtailing Music Education BY JAMES S. CATTERALL
and from BUSINESS MUSICIAN:
Also, If you ask the business community what they are looking for, it's not 5% improvement on test scores - it's creativity, teamwork and collaboration, discipline, and passion, all outcomes of music education:
FROM THE BAND ROOM TO THE BOARDROOM…The 9 Common Lessons of Music Education That Translate into Success (an excerpt from "Everything We Needed to Know About Business, We Learned Playing Music")
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