- A lot of times we, people in music
and people outside music, think that
"education" means you're not such a good artist.
That, you know, if you take the education track
it's because you couldn't make it as a musician
or you're, some other reason, that is less than the top.
That's not how I look at it.
I look at it as the education impulse being the
the quality that adds the richness
to give the art part of it real meaning.
If you can work with a young musician,
let's say in private lessons,
and can not just be teaching them to play the notes right
while it gets a little frustrating.
But actually be asking the essential questions
that we all need to ask
that make us discover music a bit more.
That actually look for the language that draws someone
into music more fully.
That revitalizes us.
That takes us to the essential places that got us
into music in the first place.
And not just the narrow places that tend to
dry us out about music.
Education provides
the
the blood, the fresh
the fresh oxygen that keeps us thinking
about music in a big way.
In a way that connects us with the person
who's come to take the music lesson
or the group of people who want to enjoy the show
but don't really know how to connect with this music
or the people who aren't even so sure
that music is for them.
As we keep using this broad definition of education,
not the narrow one that says developing skills
or teaching people about Mozart,
but the big definition of education
which is about opening people up.
We revitalize ourselves as musicians.
I actually use a different term
for people involved in education around music these days
We're no longer music educators or music teachers,
all of us have the same job title.
We are agents of musical experience.
Our job is to figure out
how to open up musical experiencing more.
And as we get a wider and wider repertoire of ways to serve
as good agents to draw in the young musician, to draw
in an audience, to open up a new piece of music,
we expand our own musical vitality and joy.
So think of yourself as an agent of musical experience.
For you, for your colleagues, and for the wider community
that isn't so sure they have a place in music.