Music Is Your Music

I got my Yale degree -- M.M. in performance, Yale School of Music, 2002, after studying with a great, kind teacher, Ransom Wilson. And I got to learn directly from other great flutists -- J. Baker, Michel Debost, Michael Parloff, etc. And I won some nice honors that sound impressive. And when I stood there with my degree, after my graduation, I finally knew that I was supposed to be a flutist. Then life happened! And I concertized and taught and wrote a theory text and began to compose and was turned into a teacher for some very special students, perhaps including you.

You see, I think we're all special. And I'm skeptical of gatekeepers, so my dream for my students is for them to blossom into all their beautiful full potential, for the right reason: As a gift. I mean, Music is a gift, right? So that in our first lessons their tone warmups always include experiencing the sound as a gift, and if they are kids, when they get to university age they will be the kind of fully developed musician and person who inspires judges and gatekeepers to keep growing and learning.

Music is a language, and the Western Canon is great, and so are Irish and Cuban and Carnatic and everything else, but what's going to come through you? You have to learn the language, by ear, the basics. Do Re Mi, and what they mean, how they function. And what they say to you in the morning on Tuesday, which may be different from what they say after afternoon tea. Learn the old great repertoire; write your own, maybe. Hear it your own way, anyway. Languages are always evolving, you know. Music is your music.