Our World Tuesday: Playing for a Very Specific Audience

The weekend was a blur!  The Connecticut Music Educator Association's Northern Region concert was Saturday evening, and Adella spent of all of Saturday at New Britain High School practicing with a 130 or so other kids--only one of who was from her school.  



She had been practicing Chester, Poem, and Galop for about two weeks--like every other kid in the band--but you would have thought they had been working at it as professionals for years to hear them.  The band was blessed with a modest, self-effacing high school music teacher as conductor.  (The other bands had exotic men from far and wide who bragged about their accomplishments in the program.  Adella's conductor ended his resume with the ages of his daughters.  I liked this buy before the show started.)


Talking about the experience in the car on the way to Starpolska to celebrate, Adella talked about how Mr. Mark Gahm taught them to connect the music to feeling, note by note.  Teaching the kids to play Poem, he asked the kids to think of someone who struggled in life but remained optimistic and to play the song to that person.  Then he Skyped "Poem" composer John Frantzen, and the kids played it for him!  Saturday night, the music was a dream--a many-layered, rich, complex, completely unified dream.  We felt the story that was the poem that inspired the music.  

Before the band came on, Adella's father remarked that all the other groups got the exotic conductors, but the band just got a public school teacher.  They would have been fighting words if the music had not said it all.  

Mr. Gahm, thank you.




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18 Comments

  1. Hooray!!! for a great concert1 I do know how proud you are and definitely deserved!!

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  2. *Applause!*





    ALOHA from Honolulu
    Comfort Spiral
    > < } } ( ° >
    =^..^= <3

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  3. Ahhhh....to be taught to connect feelings with music!
    What a teacher.
    So proud of Adella.

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  4. Clapping my hands here!! Yea!!! You must be very proud of your daughter..Sounds like a wonderful concert for all to enjoy! Have a happy week!

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  5. love and commitment to the students is worth more than any degrees or other accomplishments...

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  6. wonderful. what a great instructor...

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  7. teaching the kids to connect to the music like that allows room for the heart...and is very cool...

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  8. Dynamite show, dynamite video, dynamite instructor, dynamite recap.

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  9. It's wonderful to witness such dedicated, sincere and humble teaching. And for me it's wonderful too to know there are kids with that level of dedication.
    What a great post Sandy.

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  10. It sounds like she got the best deal. Lucky you getting to hear it in person.

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  11. that sounds like a wonderful experience! I am so happy for your daughter and for you!

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  12. Applause for a great teacher. So happy for your family and especially your daughter.

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  13. What a story. What a teacher. Congratulations to all.

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  14. Anonymous7:16 AM

    Sounds like a wonderful teacher!

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  15. What a remarkable teacher! Thanks for sharing this with the world. Do you mind if I shared it on facebook? As a former teacher, and a present member of the Board of Trustees, I so want to celebrate such a soulful master. I'll check back to read your answer.


    p.s. I came courtesy of Hillary.

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  16. Hooray for great teachers. And great moms and great daughters!

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  17. The students are blessed to get a great instructor! And I liked how you wove in beautiful pictures.

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  18. How wonderful for Adella!

    Thank you for sharing the Zander video, Sandy. I have shining eyes.

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Thanks for being here.