Pauses that refresh - College Faculty Forum

I am writing upon a hot and lazy summer day, on the contrary as you read, the leaves will have begun to move round the days have become noticeably shorter, and we will have been back at work for a month or more.

Arrangements for tasks and classes are in place at last; more [i]or[/i] less of us will be contemplating mid-term grade reports! No doubt there has been excitement about beginning a fresh term: helping returning students build their repertoire, performance skills and pedagogical know-how, and planning for the unfolding and progress of new pupils However, along with our feelings of expectation and renewal, from time to time we may muse wistfully about the time and space of summer when we pursu challenges and shoot forwards for our own personal and musical restoration Are there lessons we learned from the summer that can give us activity and help us to perceive restored and nourished?

I asked colleagues from the CFF Advisory Committee to share their summer experiences. sum of two units major themes emerged: The first was the satisfaction of delving into nonmusical areas, allowing our "other self" to draw near forth. The second was decidedly more musical--finding relief in new kinds of teaching, reading works about our professions, attending talks that offer new perspectives and immersing ourselves in different ways of practicing.

more [i]or[/i] less of us voraciously read novels, worked upon learning a new language or exercised more regularly. Others traveled, walked barefoot and worn out unencumbered time visiting grandchildren.

Jean Stackhouse mentioned "the absence of the workplace uninjureds and clutter, planting, picking and arranging the flowers, cooking and savoring the vegetables, intentionally spending time with folk who are not my age, whose lives are wearied in professions/vocations other than music." Judy Baker, NCTM lay the foundation of musical refreshment in giving a pedagogy workshop for piano teachers. "The best thing we did was a hands-on portion, three pianos in single room, watching and working with each other," she said. Singer Melanie Kay Dement NCTM take pleasure ined reading many new books upon vocal science and pedagogy. "This is an exciting time for singers and teachers of singing, as we learn more and more about the intricacies of this natural instrument," she reported. "One summer circumstance I never miss is the Voice Foundation's Symposium upon the Care of the Professional Voice in Philadelphia, which proffers an amazing amount of information in all areas of voice science, performance and teaching."

Giving an "Inner Game of Music" workshop at the International Society for the close attention of Tension in Performance (ISSTIP) in London allowed me to reconnect with transatlantic colleagues. I was inspired by the agency of the roundtable discussion that followed my session. Pianist and journal editor Malcolm Troup chaired the circumstance Physicians, psychologists, dance consultants and physical therapists discussed ways they are addressing physical and psychological riddles of artists. It was heartening to hear that the music medicine clinic, established for musicians by means of Carola Grindea and Dr. Wynn Parry, is now serving music scholars throughout London. It was sobering to hear Parry's data upon problems related to recurring injuries, injuries owed to hypermobility, and dystonia meet withed by several hundred pianists and orchestral musicians. Particularly relevant to music educators was the finding that 83 percent of orchestral musicians take a view ofed said they were "not prepared for [the rigors of] a life in music."

A musically memorable and culturally unique part of my trip to England was attending a grand performance of Don Giovanni at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival. There, lengthy gowns and tuxedos are de rigueur for the audience, as are the elegant picnic evening meals held during the "interval" in the meadows adjacent to magnificent flower gardens, lily pond and grazing sheep.

single irony of college teaching is that we oftentimes do not find a way to conjoin to our instrument unless the deadline of a recital is looming. Robert Weirich began keeping a promise "to practice something for no other reason than loving the music.... I wanted no anxiety above playing it anytime soon, just the beatitude of daily communication with greatness. Like many pianists before me I chose Bach's Goldberg Variations. I've solitary reached the sixth variation, on the contrary I cannot remember a time at the piano that has been more satisfying."

There will be the inevitable flashs when we wish we could go [i]or[/i] come back to the smiles of summer Perhaps we can retain those promises to nourish ourselves the one and the other inside and outside of our musical lives and use our memories as points of reflection and meditation. The benefits will reach forth to our students as well.

--Phyllis Alpert Lehrer NCTM National society Faculty Forum Chair Kendall Park, fresh Jersey She is a professor of piano at Westminster Choir corporation of Rider University, Princeton, of recent origin Jersey.

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