Who Am I?

I am human, therefore I am a conductor of music.  Sound is something natural that we as humans have manipulated to create our own specific collection of sounds which speak to us through time and space.  The definition of music is "an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color."  Music is a part of every individual humans life and is not unique to one group or person.  Every one has the capacity to observe, listen, appreciate, despise, and even create music.  Why is it that humans were blessed with this incredible gift, I cannot say, but to be able to master something as abstract as sound is not a gift we should ever let go of.  That being said, there are those who would seek to misuse that power to steer us in the wrong direction.  Those who have the power to make music that reaches the masses often present us with misguided music.  We need to put the power back into the creative people who would use music for peace and love and equality.  Like any other area: math, science, art, literature, there are those who could lead us astray with their own greed.  These are the subjects we focus on the most in schools in America; to invest in our futures in those areas.  We fail to realize that music in America has just as much of an impact on our people as any of our scientific achievements, and sometimes even more.  Americans are exposed to mass produced music which we sometimes are force fed.  The messages which are being sent through these types of music have such a hurtful effect on our people, especially our children who are extremely impressionable.  Children find role models in the musicians they listen to and look up to, but sometimes those people are not the roles models we want for our children...

In the middle school which I am interning in right now, there are 11 year old children singing about cocaine and acting out the actions of "snorting cocaine."  Some might assume I am working in an urban school district where it is common to listen to songs like "CoCo" ;but on the contrary I am in a suburban school school district with a minority population of only 23.4%.  This music does not know any boundaries and is accessible to all of American children.  I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the song, I listen to it myself on the radio, but I am 22 years old.  Most of us can agree that we don't want 11 year old children listening to these songs, let alone singing and acting them out.  What can we do?  We can blame the artist, or the producers, or the labels, but that is not going to change the fact that there will always be music like that in our society.  It is our job as adults and conductors of music to give our kids alternatives to the music that they hear on the radio.  A child is really only exposed to the music they hear at home and from their friends, which is not entirely all age appropriate music.  Why is it okay for a child to sing about cocaine in a school?  What will happen when they grow older?  Will they still think about cocaine in this glorified way?  This is just one specific example of what I have seen in the few weeks I have been at this middle school.  It is not limited to this one school, nor this one song.  So why am I going into so much depth about it...?

Lets take math for example, if we didn't have such a strong emphasis on math in the schools what would students know about math?  From what they learned at home and from friends, right?  So that would mean they could add, subtract, multiply and maybe divide?  Seems like the basics anyone would need to survive, but what does that leave our country with; millions of children who grew up and only had the math skills of a 5th grader.  Where does our country go from there?  With no adults in the work force who are fluent in mathematics, how will our country advance?  This is an extreme case but it mirrors what is going on with our music education.  We leave proper music training out of our curriculum and wonder why 11 year old children glorify cocaine?  Without the proper instruction, our children are left to learn about music from anywhere.  Music industries know that and capitalize on it by feeding our children watered down music that is easy to sell.  I could go on for hours about this, but I have to return to my initial question...

Who am I?

Well I am the same as you, a human, we all have the capacity to learn music and grow from it.  I have been trained in music for the majority of my life and I am an accomplished musician, but furthermore, I am a conductor.  Yes, I do conduct a small community orchestra, but I am also a conductor in the sense that music flows through me.  There are many like me, and conductors are not just limited to music, but all fields.  Anyone who is a master of their art is a conductor, and we as conductors are here to let our knowledge flow through us and inspire others to become the best people they can be.  For me, being a conductor is more that directing music, it is about opening peoples minds and souls to something they did not know existed and giving them the chance to be a part of it themselves.

My core values are to give every person on this planet, or at least all those I can reach, the chance to experience music more than what they have been told it is.  I believe that every person has the capacity to learn, play, perform, and grow from music and that is it not fair for any person to be deprived that chance to explore their musical selves.  A life without music is equal to a life of missing one of your senses.  As a conductor and a teacher I have a responsibility to bring music into all of my students lives and foster their growth as a musician.  I do not require anyone to become a famous musician, only to have opened their mind to something which may have remained dormant for their entire lives.

I recently read a book by Peter Boonshaft called "Teaching Music with Purpose" and there was one section which really opened my eyes as to why sometimes music programs fail students.  His chapter entitled "Getting Back on the Horse and Riding Even Harder" reminded me that even though I may be a conductor, my responsibilities do not stop there.  I have to be a coach, a therapist, and a friend because anyone who is going to pursue something as difficult and frustrating as music, will need all of these people in me, and I cannot fail them.  Children are more apt to hear what they do wrong but we have to be vigilant to show them the great sounds they created and may have missed.  Boonshaft calls this "listening for chills, not spills" and I agree that we need to remind our students that they are making music, regardless of whether there are "spills" or not.  Boonshaft stresses that teachers and students should be working towards the highest expectations and it only helps in getting students to grow as musicians and people.  All through their lives they will work to meet their goals and sometimes they will crash but as long as they know they can start again and that we as conductors and teachers will support them, they can really accomplish anything.

I am a role model of music for our wandering youth in America, looking for someone to unlock the door of their untapped potential in music.  I present an alternative to the the music that is fed to them, and I enable them to create their own music and fill the world with the sounds of their own time.