An idea for period costume

This coming Saturday I’ve been invited to a ‘50s themed party. One of my roommates, Marissa, and her friend took me out to value village (i say took me out, ‘tis not 3 minutes walk from our house) to look for costumes. I managed to find a great short-sleeved, collared shirt and suspenders for cheap and, as I left the store, I got thinking.

Does playing an historical instrument affect your modern playing?

I’ve had a funny week.
I have two bassoon teachers: Jo Ann, my modern teacher; and Mathieu, my baroque teacher. Jo Ann has recently shown some hesitation towards me taking up the baroque bassoon, and rightly so. At first she was very encouraging and was the one to get me in touch with Mathieu, but now that the baroque bassoon is taking more and more of my practice time it’s starting to invade on her territory.

How often do guest artists visit schools in your city?

For the past week, I’ve been reading The Music Teaching Artist’s Bible by Eric Booth. It`s a great book, although somewhat dense at the beginning, and I recommend every musician to take a look at it. I had to order it through Carleton`s interlibrary loan system (known as Racer) which, I might add, is a real tool.
While reading Mr. Booth’s book, I’ve been reflecting on the amount of arts learning in my elementary school curriculum. At my elementary school (Manor Park Public School, Ottawa), in the ‘90s, we would have a touring troupe or musical group perform about once a year and there was never any lead-up to the performance. What I mean to say is that before the assembly, the teachers wouldn’t tell us what we were about to see, as if it were as surprise to everyone. These performances seemed to be treated as if they were entertainment, not an opportunity for learning.

The Symphony, a Ritual?

It bothers me when I attend a symphony concert. So many people come out to see the NACOrchestra play Mozart, the Boston Pops, or whatever’s on that week. NACO seems to get a large crowd for their 2000-or-so seat hall and on a bad day they might still get about a thousand in there. The program booklet has a full page of corporate donors written in small print (although the donations are made to the Arts Centre itself and not to the orchestra), and people see it as a ‘valid’ or ‘proper’ thing to be doing if your were to go out one evening.