Conducting and Music Ed From a Different Angle
Mark Stickney, Director of Bands at Plymouth State University
This weekend is my first weekend in a month that wasn’t spent at a conference for one organization or another. It started at the end of February with the New Jersey Music Educators Conference, followed by the Massachusetts state conference, and then the College Band Directors National Association Eastern Division Conference. Each was its own
January is a good month for a college professor, and where I teach we don’t start our semester until the very end of the month. This give me time to guest conduct, do clinics, study scores, update my courses, and ski! This year the goal was to take it a little easier than normal and I did
After a few days of recovery, I decided to look at what happened in Chicago. What are the most important things I came away from Chicago with?
I left New Hampshire on Friday night, cats in tow on the way to my parents house. It was time for my yearly trek to the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, with stops in RI (to drop of the cats at their island home), and in Indiana for some time with my sister and her family.
The summer is finally upon me, with what little is left of it! The school year ended, the insanity that is the Newport Music Festival is over, the New England Band Directors Institute went off well thanks to all involved in running it, and the Seacoast Wind Ensemble performed their last concert last night with
I just finished coordinating the New England Band Directors Institute at Plymouth State University (NEBDI). I can tell you it was an incredible experience for me on a few different levels. To have my DMA teacher there as one of the clinicians was both a bit intimidating, and also very enlightening and humbling. If you
I just returned from a great weekend camping outside of Freeport, Maine. Now I will admit, I was in that area to conduct the Seacoast Wind Ensemble at R.B. Hall Days. Band directors, if you don’t know who R.B. Hall is, look him up! The performance was about 40 minutes of the day so the rest
If you are a teacher in a public school, chances are your year is winding down and you can see the end in sight. You are thinking… FREEDOM!!! Or maybe you are thinking the title of this post. I survived another year! This time of year your concerts are over, and your room is about
Let’s start with three definitions according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary: Critic: 1. a: one who expressed a reasoned opinion on any matter especially involving a judgment of its value, truth, righteousness, beauty or technique. b: one who engages often professionally in the analysis, evaluation, or appreciation of works of art or artistic performances. 2.
