The Olympic Games have been nothing short of amazing displays by amazing athletes. Phelps certainly has claimed his spot at the front of the class with his amazing swims over the first 8 nights of these games. Watching others go through the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” (Thanks Jim! Rest in peace!) is as real as it gets and it has kept me thinking about lessons learned, not only from Michael Phelps, but other great athletes in these games. As we approach the start of school, it is time for music educators to get back out their “coaching hats”, and get ready our students ready for a 9 month decathlon.
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As I hinted at earlier this summer, the May 6th concert at Mercer was great. The students delivered some wonderful performances of music by Julie Giroux, Quincy Hilliard, Andrew Boysen, Willie Owens, Brian Balmages, Scott Watson, and Patrick Burns. The other part of the equation was the willingness of a great friend and colleague make an idea a reality with a big impact. Dr. Joe Pisano (over at Mustech.net – It’s Visionary!) helped me to use Skype and bring three of those aforementioned composers (Boysen, Balmages, and Watson) right into the concert hall to introduce their piece. Dr. Pisano has started a four part series over at Mustech.net that I highly encourage all of you to check out. In case you have not been keeping up, Dr. Pisano is really becoming the leading figure for helping all of us do smart, simple things with technology that can pay big dividends in our professional career. This amazing evening was to our knowledge the first of its kind, and can hopefully be a vision of the future as we all make better use of technology to allow our students to have a greater connection with the music that they perform. You can read more about this amazing evening by clicking here.
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