Renaissance Institute of Music

10 Levels of Left Hand Pizzicato

Artwork: Jeanie Tomanek

Artwork: Robert Coombs

Our former intern, the marvelous Beatriz Avila Casillas!!!

Heads up to all college-going programs, parents of rising seniors, and community advocates! I'm bringing my college program online this summer for rising senio...rs in California. This program will be for students applying to the University of California this fall. It's 100% free for qualifying students. No exceptions . . . please don't ask if your student can attend for free if they don't meet the criteria. I provide this free service (with no funding or sponsorship) to help our students with the least amount of resources. More details coming soon (and a flyer). Stay tuned! See more

Artwork: Lara Paulussen

Alexander Liebermann is a composer and teacher who transcribes animal sounds for use in ear training. Here are some examples of his work: 1. Nightingale 2. Wolf... (0:26) 3. Uirapura (musical wren) (0:59) 4. Emperor penguins (1:31) 5. Humpback whale (2:04) Via Alexander Liebermann - Composer See more

Artwork: Claude Monet

Artwork: Joy Laforme

Remember when we were all annoyed by the notion of endlessly performing Beethoven in 2020? Me either.Remember when we were all annoyed by the notion of endlessly performing Beethoven in 2020? Me either.

In 2006 a high school English teacher asked students to write a famous author and ask for advice. Kurt Vonnegut was the only one to respond - and his response i...s magnificent: Dear Xavier High School, and Ms. Lockwood, and Messrs Perin, McFeely, Batten, Maurer and Congiusta: I thank you for your friendly letters. You sure know how to cheer up a really old geezer (84) in his sunset years. I don’t make public appearances any more because I now resemble nothing so much as an iguana. What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow. Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her. Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on. Make a face in your mashed potatoes. Pretend you’re Count Dracula. Here’s an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don’t do it: Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don’t tell anybody what you’re doing. Don’t show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK? Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash recepticals. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what’s inside you, and you have made your soul grow. God bless you all! Kurt Vonnegut ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When I was 15 I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of getting to know you questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes. And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them. And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them. And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could Win at them.

No single person has been more important to the development of musical soul then my beloved Maestro Jose Antonio Abreu. It is one of the great honors of my life... to conduct, for the first time ever, a composition of his, in this program with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. My Maestro dedicated this song, 'Sol que das vida a los trigos', to his composition teacher Vicente Emilio Sojo, and it speaks about the shining, life-giving force of the sun. He pours that warmth and soul into every note of the music, and he continues to shine in all of us whose lives he has touched. I invite you to join me for two free livestreams with the BRSO this Saturday and Sunday, performing my dear Maestro's 'Sol que das vida a los trigos', as well as Schumann's Symphonies 2 and 3, along with two other a cappella choral works by Venezuelan composers: 'Mata del ánima sola' by Antonio Estévez, and Modesta Bor's beautiful setting of the Pablo Neruda poem 'Aquí te amo'. RSVP or view live here: https://www.br-klassik.de/concert/index.html SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24 AT 6PM CET/12PM ET José Antonio Abreu: Sol que das vida a los trigos Modesta Bor: Aquí te amo Antonio Estévez: Mata del ánima sola Robert Schumann: Symphony No 2 C major, op 61 SUNDAY OCTOBER 25 AT 3PM CET/9AM ET José Antonio Abreu: Sol que das vida a los trigos Modesta Bor: Aquí te amo Antonio Estévez: Mata del ánima sola Robert Schumann: Symphony No 3 E-flat major, op 97 "Rhenish"

What I saw brought me to tears... This is MY teacher. I have 66 more just like her. What YOU see is a teacher working on a screen with a class full of student...s on the other side of the screen. What I see ( and what you can’t see) is a teacher working on THREE computers, an additional keyboard, and a document camera ( think high tech overhead projector, for my friends who haven’t been in school for awhile. ) I am watching a 45 min lesson in her empty classroom today. She is constantly reminding students to leave their cameras on, to leave themselves muted so that everyone can hear. She is reminding parents not to answer for their children. She is asking DEEP questions and connecting with EVERY. SINGLE. KID. They are consistently saying her name wrong, and she smiles and responds with delight. You can FEEL her love for them in her voice and you can witness her patience as she teaches a lesson on similes, metaphors and onomonopeia. Her content is ON POINT and she delivers it seamlessly. She is driving instruction and meeting my expectations ( which is no small task if you know me ) She has at least 10 resource books within arms reach, and she has been at school for over an hour- yet her purse and lunch are still sitting on a counter near her workspace. Every single child is engaged. Every single one. She wasn’t trained in this. There is no degree or course in pandemic teaching. There isn’t a training she can take before she begins and there certainly aren’t any days to get ready. She isn’t paid overtime and is told daily... (mostly by me) that other duties as assigned now define her work days. she has taught face to face classes to cover in classrooms where we have no substitutes on the same days that she continues to show up for HER class of virtual students all day long... how is that possible? I have NO ever loving idea... but her and her team make it happen. She has done this for 6 weeks already, and in 3 more, students will make their choice of virtual or face to face again and she will start her routines over like it is a brand new school year. SO, if you doubt the heart of teachers, I want you to remember this post. They are not only checking off all the boxes and checklists, they are showing up for themselves, each other and their kids. They are bearing a HUGE weight in all of this that most of you will never comprehend, much less understand. If you know a teacher- continue to fill their buckets... every dang day... they need it every dang day. If you are one of my teachers- I could not be more proud of each of you! You make my heart sing and I SEE YOU.

Artwork: Grace Cossington Smith

"What an incredible power we have, to walk through the world, making somebody’s day." -Krista Tippett : Ngh La WORD FOR THE DAY - https://bit.ly/wordfortheday

You have a choice... you can either fall into the darkness... or you can light a candle!!

Being a great musician has so much more to do than just playing the right notes or even just being a great player!!

It occurred to Pooh and Piglet that they hadn't heard from Eeyore for several days, so they put on their hats and coats and trotted across the Hundred Acre Wood... to Eeyore's stick house. Inside the house was Eeyore. "Hello Eeyore," said Pooh. "Hello Pooh. Hello Piglet," said Eeyore, in a Glum Sounding Voice. "We just thought we'd check in on you," said Piglet, "because we hadn't heard from you, and so we wanted to know if you were okay." Eeyore was silent for a moment. "Am I okay?" he asked, eventually. "Well, I don't know, to be honest. Are any of us really okay? That's what I ask myself. All I can tell you, Pooh and Piglet, is that right now I feel really rather Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. Which is why I haven't bothered you. Because you wouldn't want to waste your time hanging out with someone who is Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All, would you now." Pooh looked at Piglet, and Piglet looked at Pooh, and they both sat down, one on either side of Eeyore in his stick house. Eeyore looked at them in surprise. "What are you doing?" "We're sitting here with you," said Pooh, "because we are your friends. And true friends don't care if someone is feeling Sad, or Alone, or Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. True friends are there for you anyway. And so here we are." "Oh," said Eeyore. "Oh." And the three of them sat there in silence, and while Pooh and Piglet said nothing at all; somehow, almost imperceptibly, Eeyore started to feel a very tiny little bit better. Because Pooh and Piglet were There. No more; no less. (A.A.Milne, E.H.Shepard) Tomorrow is World Mental Health Day. Make time to check in with your family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. #bekind #bekindtoyourself #mentalhealth #WorldMentalHealthDay2020

Artwork: Vittorio Matteo Corcos

Artwork: Lara Paulussen https://www.facebook.com/larapaulussenillustration/

Artwork: Winslow Homer

Serenading our beloved Maestro Muresan during our Monday meeting Happy birthday!!