The New Economic Reality for Classical Musicians

There is much strife these days in the classical orchestral world between professional orchestra management and the musicians, especially in the country of our neighbours to the south, the United States. Many of the same conditions and market forces are just as prevalent on this side of the 49th parallel.

In a commentary discussing the appalling situation with the Minnesota and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras where orchestra management is on the verge of locking out its musicians in a contract dispute Eric Nilsson points out some basic observation that I think can resonate through the arts community.  You can read the article I am quoting from here.  The article is well worth a read.  Here are a couple of points from the article, and some points for further discussion.

The first reality is this: However much it takes to become a top-flight classical musician, the performer can expect to earn only what the market is able and willing to pay.

What's the "market"? It's people with money, be it $10 or $10 million, who would buy concert tickets or make donations to current operations and, one would hope, to an endowment for the long haul.

Today, far more "people with money" are inspired to give to charities meeting human needs than are willing to pay top-flight classical music performers year after year. In other words, the problem here is not parsimony. The problem is that unless and until society at large assigns higher value to the extraordinary work of classical music performers, musicians cannot expect to be paid what they deserve.

He goes on further...

The first reality points to a second: to increase significantly society's value perception of live, world-class classical music, greater exposure and appreciation (in that order) would need to occur in our schools, starting at kindergarten and continuing through college. The exposure would have to be via the core curriculum, not simply by casual, extracurricular band, choral, orchestra and individual instruction.

People surrounded by classical music can vouch for its intrinsic value and thus, are willing to pay. However, to persuade people without intense exposure to become huge fans and significant financial supporters of orchestras is a tall order. And the payback I'm talking about would be a long process — 20 years if we were to institute today a "core curriculum," K-through-college approach. We would then have to wait 20 years longer before the first crop of people with such exposure would reach an age when they would be capable of making major contributions to the Minnesota Orchestra and the SPCO. (I know what I'm talking about here: In my own case, even after intense exposure to classical music all my life, I didn't start giving substantially until I was well past 40.)

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The Role of the Community Music School in audience building

What is the role of the local Community Music School with presenting concerts? Do we do this because we want to educate audiences in our communities about various forms of music? Do we do this to give gigs to local musicians and help keep the Arts Alive? Do we have our own concert facilities in-house or are we renting space? Do for-profit music schools also engage in these same sorts of concerts? Why or Why not?

There has been an interesting discussion online for the past few weeks about Jazz music and its shrinking audience. It began with this Huffington Post article (which is well worth a read if you are remotely involved with arts programming, not just jazz, lots of great background info in the article which I will not repost here) which explores the notion that creating viable audiences for jazz and other forms of art music is a simple matter of education. There has been a belief for the past few years that somehow if we could just educate the kids properly we would find ourselves back in the era of John Coltrane and local jazz clubs with live musicians on every street corner. Jazz pianist Kurt Ellenberger makes the case in his article that life is not that simple; all the educational forces in the world will not bring back jazz cafes on every block.
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Music Monday shares key message

The language that unites every being on the planet is being cut out of many schools in an effort to save cash
by Bramwel Tovey

Every year, the Coalition for Music Education calls out to Canadians to participate in Music Monday, the first Monday of May, to celebrate and demonstrate their commitment to music education in the lives of young people and communities.

It is the world's largest single event dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of music education. This year, hundreds of thou-sands of students across Canada will unite in song today for the seventh annual nationwide Music Monday celebration.

In Vancouver, there will be a midday concert at Robson Square Plaza. Half a dozen school groups (from elementary to secondary, from drum circles to jazz choirs and concert bands) will be performing. I am looking forward to conducting a mass performance of the Music Monday song (Tomorrow is Coming) by Juno award-winning artist Luke Doucet.

Music Monday exists to celebrate the galvanizing power of music and demonstrate how that power is rooted in school music programs.

Schools participating in Music Monday are among the fortunate - most of them have music programs. However, many young students in Canada are not this fortunate; music classes, resources and specialist teachers have faced serious cuts or elimination throughout the country. In our own province, many school districts have reacted to budget difficulties by restricting access to music in their schools.

Music Monday is an opportunity to raise awareness about the value and importance of music education. The arts are not "frill" subjects.

Rather, they are at the core of a well-rounded education. At the VSO we believe an education without a significant musical component is no education at all.

Music is a language that links every human being on the planet. It needs little or no translation. In a school district like Vancouver, where dozens of languages are spoken by our widely diverse community, music is the only language common to everyone. Our society needs to be producing students who are creative as well as self-disciplined, who can work in teams as well as on their own. Learning music teaches these skills. We need all our children to have the opportunity to enjoy music in all its forms.

And remember: If a student holds a musical instrument, then he or she can't hold a knife, or a joint, or a needle or a crack pipe - or a gun.

If students are in a choir or a band or an orchestra, they are communicating through the universal art of music at the heart of our community.

Anyone can join the national movement for music education by visiting www.musicmakesus.ca or on Facebook www.facebook.com/music-makesus.ca.

Maestro Bramwell Tovey is the music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Why Americans Don’t Like Jazz

Thia artcle has been around online for awhile, but I believe it is quite relevant and helps explain the current marginalization of musical art forms we are experiencing at the moment.

by Dyske Suematsu  •  September 17, 2003

The current market share of Jazz in America is mere 3 percent. That includes all the great ones like John Coltrane and the terrible ones like Kenny G (OK, this is just my own opinion). There are many organizations and individuals like Wynton Marsalis who are tirelessly trying to revive the genre, but it does not seem to be working. Why is this? Is there some sort of bad chemistry between the American culture and Jazz? As ironic as it may be, I happen to believe so.

One day, I was talking to my wife about the TV commercial for eBay where a chubby lady sings and dances to an appropriated version of “My Way” by Frank Sinatra. The lyrics were entirely re-written, and “my way” was transformed into “eBay”. I told her that they did a good job in adapting the original song. Then she said: “Ah, that’s why I like it so much!” She actually did not realize that it was adapted from Sinatra’s song.

My wife and I have always known how differently we listen to music. I tend to entirely ignore lyrics, while she tends to entirely ignore music. We are the two opposite ends of the spectrum in this sense, and it appears that my wife’s side is more common. Many of my friends think that I have a peculiar, or plain bad, taste for music. Whenever I say I like this song or that song, they look at me like I am crazy. Then they go on to explain why it is bad, and I realize that they are referring to the lyrics, not to the music. I then pay attention to the lyrics for the first time, and realize that they are right. The opposite happens often too where many of my friends love a particular song, and I can’t understand what’s good about it until I pay attention to the lyrics.

The eBay example is an extreme case where my wife could not recognize the original once the lyrics were swapped. To her, if you change the lyrics, it is an entirely different song. It is the other way around for me; in most cases, I would not notice any change in the lyrics. The eBay song was an exception; I only noticed it because it is a famous song used for a TV commercial.

Read the article here DYSKE Cultural Critique

Jazz Workshops in the 21st Century, the New Mentorship Process

Every time I see a teaching artist talk about music I learn something new. Every time I look at a contemporary book or blog post explaining creative music work I find something I’ve never seen before. Not that I always agree. Yes, agreement about practicing scales and chords and patterns and rhythms is easy. But it’s in the fundamental conception of the creative process and how to address it that things get interesting. That’s where new jazz workshops around the globe are taking the lead in passing on this tradition in a way that used to be covered by working mentorships and touring.

The conversation in these workshops is often about lineage and tradition, about learning vocabulary and repertoire, how to practice, what to practice. And talk usually returns to the most elusive and perennial theme in jazz and creative music: ‘finding your voice.’ You could say the central question here is: How do I teach you to be you?

Young musicians are coming up better educated and more informed, with more opportunities for exposure to music than ever before. More professional artists are involved in workshopping, and you could say meeting artists in that context is slowly replacing the old mentorship model of touring, recording, and graduating to being a bandleader. Like not or not, the industry no longer provides those kinds of jobs in music. Musicians are learning another way.

I recently ran into Dave Liebman on an airplane and he confirmed this. He’s one of the most engaged artist educators out there. Without hesitation he said that the young musicians he encounters are coming up exposed to all kinds of music and modes of playing. And they have the materials to practice. There are more jazz programs at the high school and university level than there ever were, and the programs I’ve seen have evolved into a cross between a conservatory approach, a creative seminar, and some serious training about getting gigs and doing them well enough to make a career path.

A lot this is provided by independent, non curricular workshops around the globe. I have been fortunate to be involved with the workshop at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Banff, Alberta, Canada for the past 10 years. It’s a three week workshop that takes place in May/June at an arts campus situated in the Canadian Rockies. I stepped into the directorship in the shoes of previous directors Kenny Werner, Hugh Fraser, Steve Coleman, Dave Holland, Oscar Peterson, and Phil Nimmons.

Read the article on Dave Douglas's blog at Greetleaf music

How Can Inter-Organizational Collaboratives Build Trust?

Here is an article from Charity Village Research about how organizations can work to build inte-rorganizational  collaboaratives.  By Joan Roberts, Septebmer 19, 2011

You hear it all the time. For a collaborative to become successful there needs to be a high level of trust amongst its members. I agree. Trust is needed for collaborative members to share important and relevant information and work out issues that cross their organizational boundaries. But what exactly is trust? It can be an elusive concept. Trust is an emotion or a feeling held by an individual based on observations, facts and gut instinct that tells you that you can rely on a person, product or process to do what it is supposed to do. In a collaborative we are relying on each other to do what we are supposed to do. And if we can't deliver on our commitments then we need to talk about why and then figure out how to the task done.
Yet you must often compete with other collaborative members for funding or profile — so how you can trust a competitor? This often is the crux of the problem.

Despite being competitors, private and nonprofit sector organizations often find ways to work together. It is the only way industry standards ever develop. Private sector competitors join together in industry associations to work together on common causes like industry standards and regulatory frameworks. Nonprofits cooperate in a similar manner in sector organizations that advocate on behalf of their members.
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Diane Ragsdale on the State of the Art

This keynote address is very similar to the one Diane gave at the Arts Alliance in Vancouver about 2 years ago.

Well worth a few minutes of your time.

Diane Ragsdale on Surviving the Culture Change (Full Remarks) from Arts Alliance Illinois on Vimeo.

Why Cutting Arts Funding Is Not a Good Idea

From Psychology Today Feb. 14, 2011

Congress is once again making plans to gut the National Endowment for the Arts, so it is time for us to post more data supporting the arts. In previous posts, we've argued that the arts are essential for the development of scientific imagination. (See A Missing Piece in the Economic Stimulus; Arts and Crafts: Keys to Scientific Creativity; Arts at the Center of Creative Education). Here we argue that the arts stimulate economic development by fostering scientific and technological innovation.

Let's start with a few inspiring quotes about the value of arts from CEOs of major technological companies:
"At Boeing, innovation is our lifeblood. The arts inspire innovation by leading us to open our minds and think in new ways about our lives - including the work we do, the way we work, and the customers we serve," writes W. James McNerney, Jr., Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Boeing Company. (1)

"We are a company founded on innovation and believe the arts, like science and engineering, both inspire us and challenge our notions of impossibility," says George David, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, United Technologies Corporation (1)

"The arts foster creativity, and creativity is central to our business strategy," comments Randall L. Tobias, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Eli Lilly and Company. "Indeed, we believe there is a strong link between the creativity nurtured by the arts and scientific creativity. If our scientists are stimulated through their involvement with the arts, then it's ultimately good for our business -- and our community." (2)

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Tiger Moms and other curiosities

The Elephant Mom in The Room
from the Globe and Mail.   Feb.14, 2011

Many years ago, my wife and I were driving somewhere with our three young daughters when one of them suddenly asked: “Would you rather that we were clever or that we were happy?”

I was reminded of that moment last month when I read Amy Chua’s Wall Street Journal article Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior, a promotional piece for her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Her thesis is that, when compared to Americans, Chinese children tend to be successful because they have “tiger mothers,” whereas Western mothers are pussycats, or worse. Ms. Chua’s daughters were never allowed to watch television, play computer games, sleep over at a friend’s home or be in a school play. They had to spend hours every day practising the piano or violin. They were expected to be the top student in every subject except gym and drama.

Chinese mothers, Ms. Chua says, believe that children, once they get past the toddler stage, need to be told, in no uncertain terms, when they haven’t met the standards their parents expect of them. Their egos should be strong enough to take it.

But Ms. Chua, a professor at Yale Law School (as is her husband), lives in a culture in which a child’s self-esteem is considered so fragile that children’s sports teams give “most valuable player” awards to every member. So it’s not surprising that many Americans reacted with horror to her style of parenting.

One problem in assessing the Tiger Mother approach is that we can’t separate its impact from that of the genes parents pass on to their children. If you want your children to be at the top of their class, it helps if you and your partner have the brains to become professors at elite universities. No matter how hard a Tiger Mother pushes, not every student can finish first (unless, of course, we make everyone “top of the class”).
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What is Wrong with the Arts?

A very interesting discussion is taking place here about this article which appeared yesterday. Here is the article, and follow the link below to the orginal site.

from Michael Kaiser.President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts


It is no surprise to most of us that the arts are in a parlous state. But contrary to popular belief, it isn't the fault of unions, the absence of arts education in our schools, the lack of involvement by boards, or even a dearth of arts management training.

The arts are in trouble because there is simply not enough excellent art being created.

I know that I am risking the wrath of the entire arts community, and I know I am also at risk of sounding like the classic old-timer ("When I was a young man... "). But when I was a young man we had Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey and George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. And I am just mentioning a few of the astonishing dance artists working in the 1950s and 1960s. We also had Bernstein and Rodgers and Stravinsky and Rubinstein and Horowitz and Tennessee Williams and...

Today, far more inventiveness can be found in popular entertainment than can be found in the classic arts. The embracing of new technologies and the willingness to try new things seems to have become more the province of rock music and movies than of opera, ballet and theater. We are losing the attention of Americans because we are not producing work that is new, fresh and daring. No wonder so many newspapers are no longer covering the serious arts.

The classical arts have simply not kept up. There is so little work that is new and daring. In an effort to build our audience base we have tried to substitute celebrity for excellence and bigger sets and costumes for insight and true beauty. Stunt casting may increase earned revenue but it doesn't help create a masterpiece. And a $60 million musical, with whiz bang sets, is not necessarily better than a $10 million musical with more modest sets and costumes.

True, we still have among us a few of the greats -- Paul Taylor, Stephen Sondheim, etc. -- who have been producing great art for many decades. But these geniuses cannot be the vanguard for a still young century. And while we do have some amazing younger talents -- Mark Morris, Yo-Yo Ma and Alexei Ratmansky among them -- we need more. Where are the new brilliant voices that astonish, educate and entertain us?

Have we created and documented all we need of art? I don't think so. Is the world short on talent? No, again.

But the institutional nature of our arts ecology, a relatively recent phenomenon, means that groups of people are now more responsible for arts making than the individual. Boards, managers and producing consortia are overly-involved.

And these groups are misbehaving. They are overly-conservative, subject to "group think" and so worried about budgets that they forget that bad art hurts budgets far more than risk-taking does.

It is popular to bemoan the fact that young people spend too much time communicating vapid thoughts on Facebook or Twitter. I think this is unfair to younger people. We in responsible arts positions must give them something to talk about.

from the Huntington Post - Feb. 14th

Explaining an Arts NonProfit

Here is a short but funny little video that unfortunately rings true to those of us that work in the non-profit arts sector.

Cultural deep thinkers have their say

We asked several leading figures in the country’s arts scene what was the one thing they would change about Canada’s cultural policies. Their responses:

Hubert Lacroix, President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada

I would introduce a process that, at least every decade, reviews the role that CBC/Radio-Canada should play. This process would also align our role with a multi-year financing commitment that allows us to fulfill the expectations that Canadians have of their public broadcaster.

Denise Robert, Quebec producer, co-founder and president of Cinémaginaire

Rephrase “Canadian cultural policies” as “focus on exceptional individual Canadian talents.”

Graham Henderson, President of the Canadian Recording Industry Association

Canada’s cultural industries need to be thought of as industries, not just as “the arts.” They are key economic drivers that contribute significantly to Canada’s GDP and create jobs. Government policy should reflect this. Canada’s digital future is not just about infrastructure; it is also about content. No digital economic strategy can be complete without the cultural industries at the table. This is not currently the case. And it needs to change.

Read more...

Cultural deep thinkers have their say - thestar.com

Arts funding for kids?

While scanning through the Government of BC's web page listing all the Community Grants applications in process this morning I couldn't help but notice the number of applications still listed as being "in process".  For community organizations under the umbrella of "arts and culture" the application deadline was May 30th, with final notification by Aug. 31. This year only arts organization dedicated to Youth arts activities were even allowed to apply.

So here we are, two weeks before the deadline, and as I go through the list of organizations that are marked as being "complete" I notice a disturbing trend that all of the "complete" organizations, at least in Delta and Richmond are sports related.  All of the community arts organizations and school PAC committees are still listed as "in process".

So after last year's funding fiasco where all of BC's arts groups lost funding (except those on multi-year contracts which the government decided to uphold) are we faced with Round 2?  It was on August 24th last year when the government issued their press release indicating that all funding had been frozen, and we would all have to "wait and see".

So does does our provincial government value Arts Education, or even public school education in our province? I guess we still have to wait and see.

Charitable and Not-for-Profit Community Response to the Long Form Census Debate

It seems every summer some crazy political story surfaces that just makes you wonder what people are thinking and make us ask "why would anyone do that?". This "summer of discontent" issue seems to be the debate about our Canadian Long form Census. What is most baffling about the debate is that the average Canadian seems to be totally unaware of how that information could be used, or be beneficial to community  groups of all stripes with basic issues of program planning.  Those of us who plan programs for community groups actually look for statistics and hard data to see what the trends are within our communities.  Otherwise we are kind of in the dark,  making decisions based on our own personal perceptions, which sometimes prove to be right, but many times can prove to be wrong. Demographic data from the Census is but one tool in the process those of us working behind the scenes use to determine what our communities need, what sort of new programs they might  support. Without that data many of our community organizations would be running down some blind alleys always assuming what worked yesterday will work tomorrow..Our communities however are not static.

Both Imagine Canada and the Canadian Conference of the Arts have written to Industry Minister Tony Clement to express their concern about the Government of Canada’s decision to replace the mandatory long form census with a voluntary household survey. You can read Imagine Canada’s letter here and the Canadian Conference of the Arts’ letter here.

Charitable and Not-for-Profit Community Response to the Long Form Census Debate | Orchestras Canada

Arts education: "It's not a waste of time" - ARTicles

"Just Do It" - sounds like an over used corporate slogan, but then again the road to becoming an great artist or a great "anything at all" for that matter is first to get out thee and "do it", not just write or talk about it.

The link below is an article worth having a look at , I will quote a few lines here because it makes a great point.

... I was reminded of this the other night during the Oscars when Michael Ciacchino won for his original score for "Up." He skipped the usual shout-outs to agents and higher powers and, instead, went right back to the beginning.

I was nine and I asked my dad, "Can I have your movie camera? That old, wind-up 8 millimeter camera that was in your drawer?" And he goes, "Sure, take it." And I took it and I started making movies with it and I started being as creative as I could, and never once in my life did my parents ever say, "What you're doing is a waste of time." Never. And I grew up, I had teachers, I had colleagues, I had people that I worked with all through my life who always told me what you're doing is not a waste of time. So that was normal to me that it was OK to do that. I know there are kids out there that don't have that support system so if you're out there and you're listening, listen to me: If you want to be creative, get out there and do it. It's not a waste of time. Do it. OK?

Imagine that. He had teachers who told him what he was doing wasn't a waste of time. All aspiring young artists should have teachers like that. I'm not saying that teachers who foster creativity aren't out there, but they're either fleeing the profession or drowning in a mad "reform" race that threatens to drive the arts out of public schools. And frankly, I'm worried.
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Arts education: "It's not a waste of time" - ARTicles Blog of the National Arts Journalism Program.

Thoughts and writings; "Artists Don't Need Money"

I wandered across this poem  today by American composer Linda Robbins Coleman. It is a classic, and sums up how I think most artists in British Columbia feel these days with the impending budget cuts and the current demise of Arts funding in this province. I hope everyone follows through the link below to Linda's blog and reads the entire entry. It is not a new poem, but very, very relevant to us here in BC in 2010. Out of respect for copyright I am not posting it here, but please follow link at the bottom.

The following poem first appeared in the Iowa Arts News magazine, volume 27, number 2, in 1994. It is, by far, the most published and requested poem I have written to date.

I originally wrote it in reaction to a telephone call I received asking me to donate my performing services to a luncheon celebrating local philanthropy. As an arts advocate I was happy to participate and to donate my services. But when I was at the luncheon, performing jazz on the piano while everyone ate the catered lunch, my mind wandered. I looked around the room and saw more than a billion dollars of personal wealth in that room, and much more in corporate wealth.

Suddenly I realized that everyone working in that room - from waiters, sound engineers, luncheon organizers, the hotel, the awards manufacturers, the florist, the decorators, the utilities, and the staff who ran the company bestowing the awards - had been or were going to be paid for their services. Even the piano tuner had been paid.

It struck me that I was the only professional in that room who had been asked to donate my services. I was the performing artist. At that time I wasn’t making much more money annually than the waitstaff, either.

No one would have dreamed to ask the caterer to donate the food or the hotel to donate their room. I found it a bit amusing and ironic that I was donating my services at a luncheon celebrating philanthropy. Needless to say, my own philanthropic contribution was not recognized or acknowledged.

A few months after that luncheon I was again called and asked to donate my professional services for another equally worthy cause. Ten minutes after I hung up the telephone, this poem was written.

Thoughts and writings "artists don't need money"
 Linda Robbins Coleman

The Tyee — Fill Your Opening Ceremony with Arts, then Cut Them

From "The Tyee" article by Mark Lieren-Young. An excellent opinion piece about the current state-of-affairs.

As k.d. lang mesmerized the world with her magical rendition of "Hallelujah," I couldn't shake the image of Gordon Campbell as the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, hearing the joyous carols from Whoville, his heart growing ten sizes as Leonard Cohen's lyrics soared to the roof of BC's giant marshmallow tied to a kitchen chair.

By the time the Alberta Ballet left the stage, WO Mitchell had been quoted, Ashley MacIsaac stopped fiddling, the spirit bear puppet took its bow, the First Nations dancers finally dropped from exhaustion and Shane Koyczan slammed out his last syllable about zippers and zeds, I hoped our Premier would realize what he'd been waving his flag for all month long, what was prompting this epic outpouring of hoser pride from Sea to Sea to Sea and why all those hearts around the world were glowing.

All the singing, dancing, drumming, pretty costumes, exotic designs and fancy words being intoned on the loudspeaker by Donald Sutherland is what government funding bodies call "arts and culture." And that would be the part of the provincial budget the Liberal Government recently decided to brutalize. Ninety per cent cuts? That's not "belt-tightening" -- that's premeditated murder by strangulation.

Artists came through

The next time a Liberal MLA -- or anyone -- goes on a rant about the value of arts and culture, skip the stats about how the arts return $1.30 to the economy for every government dollar invested. Don't mention the fact that culture creation is genuinely green. Don't bother pointing out that pretty much every other industry in Canada has some sort or subsidy, incentive or tax break attached to it. And forget the reality that if our galleries, museums and theatres start to close, our tourism industry will be about as inviting as a Stephen Harper smile. Ask them what Canada decided to show off when millions of people tuned in from around the world to find out what our country was all about.

Unless I missed something, there were no spectacular shots of our highways, no visits to mills or mines -- and, with all due respect to our Greatest Canadian, Tommy Douglas, there wasn't any footage of someone on the Olympic stage receiving affordable health care.

The Canadian heroes chosen to share the world stage with our Olympic athletes weren't our politicians, lawyers, or civil servants and our military presence consisted of General Romeo Dallaire, who was introduced as an author. Oh, right, they also threw in an astronaut to represent non-artsy Canadians.

For the next few weeks we're not showing the world our banks, our office towers, or our tar sands -- we're pointing at inukshuks.

If you took all the arts and culture out of the opening ceremonies -- that would include the choreographed torch fun run as the hydraulics performed their scene from Spinal Tap -- all you've got left from the scheduled event are a couple of political speeches, a thanks from VANOC, the athletes entering -- without music -- wearing non-distinctive, undesigned uniforms, and Wayne Gretzky in the getaway truck. I'm sure NBC would have loved that.


The Tyee — Fill Your Opening Ceremony with Arts, then Cut Them

How Many Activities should your Child be In?

I am sure this story rings true with many of us in the teaching profession. There is a small segment of our students that always seem to be over programmed by their parents.They have no time to practice, or are always cancelling their lessons because of conflicts with other extracurricular activities. It seems some parents use extracurricular activities as a method of extended day care, which creates  situations where no one wins, and the child accomplishes nothing. Here is an article about this from this morning's Vancouver Sun:

While many parents pressure their children to become the next hockey champion or entertainment idol, Anita Wyczynski is allowing her children to focus on one or two activities they enjoy most.

"I do think kids should experience all sorts of different things, whether it be sports, art, or music," Wyczynski says from her home in Ottawa.

"Eventually, they pick what they're passionate about, or what they excel at, and they take it from there."

Wyczynski's children -- Alexa, 13, and Jordana, 2 -- both participate in sports. Wyczynski says Alexa's passion is for hockey, but she also plays basketball at school and takes one hour of dance lessons each week. Jordana takes baby gymnastics and swimming lessons.

Read the Article at the Vancouver Sun - Feb.1, 2010

The fine line between brilliance and burnout

What are your favourite books on music or arts education?

There are a few books that i would like to review for this forum in upcoming posts. Has anyone come across any really interesting reads about education or Arts education that you would like to share with us? To get us started  I have found a couple of great books in the past year. One is The Talent Code by Tom Peters. Another book recently mentioned to me by a colleague is The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross.  I would like to compile a list of favourite books concerning music and education, and list them here sometime in the next month or so. Leave a comment with your favourite books if you have some recommendations. Thanks!

Happy Holidays

Happy holidays to all of our colleagues at the BC Community Music Schools and to all the readers of this blog.  If you have been following this blog for awhile you will understand that this past year has been a challenging one  for many arts organizations in BC.  Most of us have been dealing with the 100% withdrawal of government funding while at the same time  many of the parents and families that we work with have experienced a year of challenges and economic hardship of their own. At the same time there are new opportunities and greener pastures perhaps just around the corner. The loss of funding may help make us less dependent on grants and more dependent on our own grass roots support from our constituents and communities.

Here is looking for better days ahead for the next year. All the best to everyone for 2010.  Cheers.