Professor CarolT-M-E-A. The Texas Music Teachers’ Association Annual Convention in San Antonio, Texas (home of the Alamo). That’s where I spent four days last week, and I simply have to tell you about it. My head is still spinning. Thousands of accomplished high-school musicians, their families, … Read more
The best concerts (films, plays, art exhibits) linger in the mind. Even the ones you don’t like have value, as you mull over what displeased you. But when they’re good, they remain in the ear and in the mind. I heard a provocative concert this … Read more
Most of North America froze over the 2009 holiday season. Here in North Central Texas, we had a rare Christmas blizzard, with all of the attendant joys and challenges. But the real story started when the temperature warmed up. Mud, mud, and more mud. Snow … Read more
Get ready to swing with Roland Muzquiz, master percussionist with the Dallas Wind Symphony and someone who can help us to learn what swing really is. Take it away, Roland!
Enjoy this new interview with Michael Shih, Concertmaster of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and passionate advocate for Chamber Music!
You will find a new featured video on the home page: a conversation with Michael Conrady about the pipe organ. Michael is the music director at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Dallas. You’ll also meet him in the discussion of Johann Sebastian Bach (Unit … Read more
Once upon a time . . . actually, when I started my job as Music History Professor at Southern Methodist University in 1985, I had to face facts: even with my fancy new Ph.D. in musicology, my musical education was filled with holes. There wasn’t … Read more
We live in a visual world. We constantly analyze what we see on a sophisticated level, but most of us are not nearly as skilled in listening. That’s why many of us prefer music in styles that are already familiar. Opening our ears and mind … Read more
What is the most famous four-note melody in the world? One where three of the four pitches repeat the same note? Now that’s a toss-up: either the opening of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, a.k.a. “Fate Knocking at the Door” (dah-dah-dah dum) or . . . ready?. … Read more
For weeks, our little vocal ensemble here in Bowie has been rehearsing for our upcoming Festival of Lessons & Carols. In music, we talk so much about “ancient” traditions, meaning traditions at least a few centuries old. By that standard, the Festival of Nine Lessons … Read more