I Am a Fine Musician

10/05/2019

Bring back the Arts! New Jersey 1st State to have Arts in every school.

One New Jersey high school sounded more like a jazz club Monday night when Gov. Phil Murphy came to visit.

06/02/2019

Well-put Eric​! Your quote was one I heard Louise Ghandhi repeat time after time when I first got involved with El Sistema.- It resonated with me - for that is the simple and profound reason I teach. Loving kids and loving music and loving the process of sharing music with them is the "whole" point. And it is in within that continuous feedback circle of love, deep affect, accomplishment, and mentorship that we all are healed. Thanks for writing this Editorial...

Editorial: Loving a Community into Wholeness Some years ago, I was mocked by a Sistema critic for my statement that the essence of Sistema learning environments is to love children into wholeness. Although my statement was taken out of context, to make a point (as Sistema’s most polemical critics ...

11/21/2018

"... focused training in any of the arts—such as music, dance or theater—strengthens the brain’s attention system, which in turn can improve cognition more generally. " -- Gregg Goodhart, Smart Music

Gregg Goodhart describes the neuroscience of deliberate practice and how we can better help students learn by better understanding how the brain works.

10/01/2018

Triste noticia, de la muerte de un jazzista con tanto talento y una trayectoria tan grande. "Después de casi 50 años tocando, lo haría otra vez, pero ¡mejor!"

El trompetista y percusionista neoyorquino ha fallecido por inhalación de humo en su piso del barrio de Lavapiés

09/20/2018

Nada como la salsa para alegrarse el día.

09/20/2018

Colombia se proyecta como el mayor exportador de música de América Latina. Podemos confirmar de que ahí existen grandes talentos, muchos aún por descubrir.

El país es exportador no solo del género urbano, que es lo más evidente, sino de artistas como Monsieur Periné y Juan Pablo Vega.

08/23/2018

Insights from a music student who has participated in an orchestra in her hometown. What she writes about the Fox Valley Symphony Youth Orchestra (YO): "YO has inspired me to pursue a career in orchestral playing by preparing me to be a good follower and a good leader, as well as how to interact with my peers, my coaches and my conductors. Being a member of an orchestra is a powerful experience because you can feel the power of having many people working together to create sound."

Fox Valley Symphony Youth Orchestra provides opportunities for young musicians to challenge themselves.

08/20/2018

A lovely project: Music For Life, honoring a young person who was lost. Music for Life is a music program that gives low-income students the opportunity to experience the benefits of music, including building their own guitar.

Music for Life is a music program where low income students are given the opportunity to experience all the positive benefits of music, including building their own guitar. Reporter/Camera: Deborah Block, Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki

08/17/2018

This looks like a lovely book, worth exploring: The Children of the Stone, by Sandy Tolan, the true story about one child's vision to change the lives of others through the mastery of music and participation in an orchestra. Yes.

It is an unlikely story. Ramzi Hussein Aburedwan, a child from a Palestinian refugee camp, confronts an occupying army, gets an education, masters an instrument, dreams of something much bigger than himself, and then, through his charisma and persistence, inspires scores of others to work with hi...