Tuning Up

October 2009, Op. 48 No. 2

A DALCROZE SAMPLER with ANNE FARBER, Director,

The Dalcroze School of Music, NYC
Wednesday Oct. 7th, 10:00 am - Noon
at the PEARL RIVER LIBRARY

Classic Exercises: Quick Reaction, Follows, Canon
Alone with the Music
With a Partner and the Music
With the Group and the Music
Techniques for Experimenting with Improvisation in the Private Lesson:
Student as soloist
Duet: Two students
Duet: Student and Teacher

ANNE FARBER
has a diploma from the Dalcroze Institute, Geneva, Switzerland. She currently teaches at the Lucy Moses School in NYC, and has previously taught at the Mannes College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, both in NYC. She has given workshops throughout the United States, Europe and Japan in Dalcroze studies. Ms. Farber is a specialist in improvisation.

AUDITION MEETING
The members of the board would like to have an open forum on Wednesday Nov. 11th at 10 am inviting interested members in a discussion concerning our Audition Program. We plan to discuss the issue of declining participation with the possibility of redesigning our format to reflect the changing needs of our students and teachers. Location of the meeting will be announced in the next issue.

OBITUARY
It is our sad duty to alert our membership to the passing of a very dear, long time member and colleague, Si-Hon Ma. He died September 12th in a nursing home in suburban Philadelphia. He had been in failing health for some time. Mr. Ma was the president of the Si-Yo Music Society which presented an annual series of chamber music concerts in New York from 1971-2004. The first concerts, with the participation of his wife, pianist Tung Kwong-Kwong, who survives him, were performed in the Chinese School in Chinatown. Because of their popularity they soon transferred to Merkin Hall near Lincoln Center.

FALL and WINTER CALENDAR:

Wed. Oct. 7th, 10 am
Pearl River Library,
Anne Farber on the Dalcroze Method

Sun. Oct. 18th, 7 pm
Home of George Bryant, Film Club - "The Soloist"
RSVP 480-5036

Sun. Nov. 1st, 3 pm,
Rockland Community College
Young People's Concert featuring RCMTG Concerto winners as soloists with the Rockland Symphony.

Wed. Nov. 4, 10 am,
Pearl River Library, Flutist Zara Lawler - Memorization Techniques.

Sun. Nov. 8th, 7 pm
Aat home of Rhoda Forte,
Book Club - "Lost Genius"by Kevin Bazzana - RSVP to Barbara at 358-5663

Wed. Dec. 2nd, 10 am at Pearl River Library, Fredrica Wyman - Master Class

Sat/Sun Dec 12th and 13th at Palisades Mall, Annual Music Marathon, all day

From the President

At a family dinner last May, celebrating the graduation of one of my four grandsons from McGill University after he completed a 5 year program earning degrees in both piano and music education, one of the other grandparents remarked that at least one of my four grandsons had inherited my musical genes. The other three were inclined towards sports.

And indeed I remember watching each of them from Little League up to college developing extraordinary abilities on the baseball diamond. Each of the grandsons were excellent at bat as well as on the mound as pitchers. One even excelled at football, becoming team quarterback in his junior year and bringing a consistently losing high school team into the finals.

I wondered for a moment....well from whom did they inherit their abilities in sports? Since I could find no one else in the family to credit with these skills, I surprised myself by saying: "Well, if no one has any objection, I am going to take credit for my other three grandsons' excellence in sports too!"

I don't think anyone at the table was more shocked than I, that I 'blurted' that out, and now had to defend the assertion.

I began with.... In playing an instrument, hand eye coordination is very important. This is also true of pitching a baseball, or swinging a bat.

Another element which is important for both musicians and sports players is timing. Sensing the exact moment at which to release the ball, or begin the swing.

And without missing a beat (to show that timing was indeed a musical attribute) I followed up with.... and then there is focus....the ability to throw yourself into the task at hand, to lose yourself in the moment of what you are doing. You are at one with the music - pre-hearing how you want the next phrase to sound as you are with the logic of the next move. Distractions of an audience or the cheering crowd do not interfere with your ability to concentrate.

I could feel in the resonating silence that everyone was weighing what I said...and then slowly one after the other, heads were nodding....yes, musical biology triumphs!

RHODA FORTE