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Fiddling With An American Alternative To Suzuki
Fiddling With An American Alternative To Suzuki. To re-brand America's various musical traditions as American classical music:
NPR www.npr.org
American violinist Mark O'Connor has been a sideman for country stars and a soloist with symphony orchestras. He has made 36 albums. Now comes his biggest project yet: He wants to change the way young people learn how to play his instrument.
O'Connor says he wants to create what he calls "super string players for the 21st century" -- musicians who can improvise and experiment, who want to use the violin to play all kinds of music. He says he can bring fiddling in from the margins, all the way into the center of the world of classical music.
...In the '70s, Doree Huneven sat at the feet of Shinichi Suzuki. She was the third Western student to graduate from his school in Japan. Now, Huneven is an O'Connor acolyte, one of the first teachers to use his new method. The books are richly illustrated, with information about the history of every piece, and every melody is catchy.
"It grabs them," Huneven says. "It ropes them in. It's Pied Piper music. They just love it. They can't stop playing it."
Still, Huneven acknowledges that some people don't get what O'Connor is trying to do: to blur the lines between jazz and bluegrass and world music. To re-brand America's various musical traditions as American classical music.
-All Things Considered, NPR
Full Story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126283545
No, Your Child Is Not Tone Deaf -- Jennifer Wade interviews Mark O'Connor on his new O'Connor Violin Method
Exclusively available at Sharmusic.com
For wholesale orders: M&M Distribution
NPR www.npr.org
American violinist Mark O'Connor has been a sideman for country stars and a soloist with symphony orchestras. He has made 36 albums. Now comes his biggest project yet: He wants to change the way young people learn how to play his instrument.
O'Connor says he wants to create what he calls "super string players for the 21st century" -- musicians who can improvise and experiment, who want to use the violin to play all kinds of music. He says he can bring fiddling in from the margins, all the way into the center of the world of classical music.
...In the '70s, Doree Huneven sat at the feet of Shinichi Suzuki. She was the third Western student to graduate from his school in Japan. Now, Huneven is an O'Connor acolyte, one of the first teachers to use his new method. The books are richly illustrated, with information about the history of every piece, and every melody is catchy.
"It grabs them," Huneven says. "It ropes them in. It's Pied Piper music. They just love it. They can't stop playing it."
Still, Huneven acknowledges that some people don't get what O'Connor is trying to do: to blur the lines between jazz and bluegrass and world music. To re-brand America's various musical traditions as American classical music.
-All Things Considered, NPR
Full Story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126283545
No, Your Child Is Not Tone Deaf -- Jennifer Wade interviews Mark O'Connor on his new O'Connor Violin Method
Exclusively available at Sharmusic.com
For wholesale orders: M&M Distribution
