We all crave community, even the most outrageously individualistic among us. My teaching is based on the assumption that we are all highly individual, our children even more so. Their givens are for us adults, parents and teachers alike, to nurture and support.
Community is nowhere more evident than in a space in which people are listening together, whether it be Carnegie Hall or Barbes in Brooklyn. In my teaching I foster an environment in which dissimilarity is assumed. Parents, siblings, students, and the teacher all become better listeners when the particulars of each student take precedence over uniformity of expectation or result. In this setting students--all students--surpass themselves.
In this setting I have learned to expand my own definitions of meaningful music-making.
