Where the Music Begins!
Westside Music Notes (Winter 2008-2009)
It’s our 20th Anniversary! and a good time to reflect...
Why Enroll in Music?
During the Parent Orientation meeting held each semester at Westside Music School, parents get a chance to answer that question. Some of the answers:“I regret that I never got an opportunity to learn music, and I want my child to have that opportunity”; “Music enriches life”; “My child loves music”; “I love music”, “I want a fun activity that my child and I can participate in together”; “I believe music study will help my child develop discipline”; “I’ve heard that learning music makes it easier to learn mathematics and other subjects”; “Music makes people happy”.
Researchers for a study and an article in the Spring 2002 Early Childhood Connection Leadership Bulletin interviewed 951 piano students, their parents and teachers. These interviewees added the following benefits of studying music: development of discipline, concentration, confi dence, self-esteem, responsibility, personal pleasure. Nearly all of them believed that piano study is worthwhile, enjoyable, and capable of producing benefi ts beyond the acquisition of musical skills.
More than 2,300 years ago, the philosopher Plato said: “Music is a more potent instrument than any other for education, and children should be taught music before anything else.” Dr. Max Bendiner: “Music may achieve the highest of all missions: She may be a bond between nations, races and states who are strangers to one another in many ways. She may unite what is disunited, and bring peace to what is hostile.” In speaking about his renowned theory of relativity, Einstein said: “It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception.”Composer Ludwig von Beethoven: “Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.”
What I believe is that the study of music opens a door to something in all of us that enriches everything we do, whether it is connecting to the rhythms of the universe or enhancing your math or just having more fun in another dimension. As the singer Billy Joel said, “I think music in itself is healing. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.” Said another way, music is a universal language and, as with any language, the greater your facility with it, the more it gives you.
~ Claudia Reinsch
CONGRATULATIONS
to the Han family (students Austin, Hannah, and
David, and their parents Lam and Lena), who won
the Grand Prize in our 20th Anniversary Celebration
raffle, the Yamaha Portable Grand keyboard! Proceeds
from the raffle were donated to the Music
Link Foundation, a non-profit organization that
links promising students in need with professional
music teachers, who volunteer to teach on partial
to full scholarship for as long as these students
wish to learn. The Foundation has served over
3,000 students in 40 states, and 116 students in
Oregon. Westside Music School has donated
over $500 to the Music Link Foundation in 2008.
Ever wonder if we ever hear from previous students who have graduated from Westside Music School courses? Keep in touch – someday you may be in this column!
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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Twins David and Emily Richmond and their younger sister Leslie, children of Mike and Sue Richmond, attended classes at Westside Music School from the age of 3, beginning with the Music in Me course. The Richmonds were part of the musical family at Westside Music School for over 10 years.
David Richmond
is currently pursuing a
Master’s Degree in Bassoon
Performance from Shepherd
School of Music at Rice University
after graduating from
Harvard
in 2006.
Leslie Richmond
is pursuing graduate
study on flute at L’Ecole
Normale de Musique de
Paris after receiving a BA
in French Studies from Rice University and a BM from
the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
Emily Richmond graduated from Harvard in 2006 and is pursuing a PhD in Music History from University of California, Berkeley, after receiving her Master’s Degree.
Emily says,“One of the
most important
elements of my
program as a
Ph.D. student
in the music
department at
the University
of California,
Berkeley, is the
teaching of music
history and
musicianship to undergraduates. Every day that I stand
up in front of a classroom, I draw on the ingrained love
of music fi rst instilled in me as a child at Westside Music
School, where the pursuit of music was equal parts art,
enjoyment, and community. These are the same values
I aim to pass on now to my students, whether they have
been playing an instrument for years or they are just now
being introduced to Mozart.”
~ All three still play the piano.
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