All In
I grew up in a household of musicians where we worshiped to the gods of chamber music. My father- who was the 2nd violin of the Concord String Quartet was from a long lineage of visual artists who came from the Roycroft Arts and Crafts movement. These were folks who lovingly crafted fine furniture, artisan pottery, and metal crafts. The founder of that movement, Elbert Hubbard spoke of this in his often quoted manifesto: “The Love you Liberate in your work is the only love you keep.”
You have to be brave to choose a life in the arts these days. The statistics and future of some of our most trusted professions is uncertain. And for parents and students to invest in music study can feel risky.
But in fact- the cannon we teach and the skills we develop in music programs- produce citizens with a diverse skill set; students that are both resilient and resourced. The arts training, as it turns out, is an outstanding foundation for being good a lot of things.
For example:
We train our students how to be Scientist, Historians, and Mathematicians
We give them an education in Religion, Foreign languages, Marketing, Technology, and computer science.
We introduce skills in mindfulness, meditation, and mental practice;
School them how to use their voices and hearts; and to treat their bodies as athletes of the small muscles.
Our students graduate with outstanding
People skills, Time management discipline, Diplomacy, and Marketing skills.
So students please remember these in your resumes!
----
My job description is much less lofty: I pass on, teach, and demonstrate the skills involved in playing the flute.
I diverge to share a few fun facts about the flute:
• The oldest known instrument is a bone flute dating back 9,000 years
• The flute takes more air then almost any instrument (tuba excepted)
• And In my humble opinion I am a flutist/not a flautist.
This ancient instrument is a calling for 18 flutists at CU this year.
Some days I get to teach from a big picture perspective and coach a juicy sonata or inspired chamber music group where issues of style, collaboration, and presentation are on highlight- and other days we spend the hour on a single note.
The truth is that I love it all! I feel a spring in my step as I hike up to my studio each day. To be able to take a freshman from elementary tone work to the success of a senior recital is thrilling work.
Last week I met a former student at an Indian restaurant in Houston- she was getting ready to play the big flute solo from Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphoses with the New World Symphony. I am so proud of all of the flute alumni- Jana Lange who gave the student commencement address last May and won the Honors competition, of Starla Doyal who will graduate from CU’s law school this May, and Anna Conigliari who recently completed an arts internship at Lincoln Center.
All of these students had the opportunity to go ALL IN while they were here. To unabashedly proclaim their devotion to the flute, to put in practice room time on good days and hard days. To strive towards their next goal with the same determination and conviction that it takes to get to the moon!!
I’d like to close with an edited quote from Theodore Roosevelt
“It is not the critic who counts; not the woman who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if she fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
CHEERS TO Going ALL IN