Rearranging the Furniture

When I was a kid, I used to love to rearrange the furniture in my bedroom. I would move the bed, my dresser, my stereo, and other important items in my life around to different places in the room about every 6 months. To me it represented something new, something different and fresh. And I always enjoyed walking in to a little surprise for the first week or so of the newly arranged furniture. When I moved into my first apartment, I did the same thing.  About every six months, I would move things around.  Now that we live in a house, have kids, and very busy lives, it doesn't happen as often. But, I still really enjoy the process of rearranging and redecorating. It keeps things fresh, less predictable, and a little bit exciting. My thoughts today are less about furniture specifically and more about changes in our lives. A few weeks ago I was having a conversation with a pastor at my church.   We were talking about some impactful personnel changes at the church and I told her about some other areas in my life where important people were coming and going. She said to me, "Wow! You are really rearranging the furniture right now!" Boy, was she right!  I have thought about that comment a great deal since then.  I have been keenly aware, over the past 18 months or so, that many of the stable friendships, relationships, and long-term pillars of my life have been shifting around a bit. This can be very disorienting. And, truth be told, it has been for me. But, in the midst of that shift, there is also good to be found.  There can be excitement, daily surprises, and potential for a fresh start. Let me see if I can explain.

School and Work

At NCSSM, I have enjoyed a very stable set of collegial relationships within the Music Department for about the past 12 years. My dear friend Dave Stuntz has been our part-time Choral Director and collaborator for 15 years. Philip Riggs, Grammy Award-winning Music Educator, has been NCSSM's Band Director and probably my closest professional colleague for the past 12. The three of us are all about the same age and had developed an incredibly stable and comfortable working relationship and rhythm over the years. Phillip announced his retirement in January of 2019 (and came back to NCSSM on a part-time basis for the 2019-2020 school year before retiring fully in May of 2020). Dave retired from NCSSM in May of 2020. We ran a search and successfully hired two amazing music educators to fill these positions. Carolina Perez and Chad Cygan have turned out to be magnificent colleagues and will carry on the great traditions we have in the music program at NCSSM for sure and certainly create new traditions of their own. But, that doesn't mitigate the shock to the system of two of my best friends and peers moving on to the next phase of their personal and professional lives. It changed my everyday life in profound ways.  

Blacknall Church

I didn't mention earlier that Dave Stuntz was also the long time Director of Music and Worship at Blacknall Presbyterian Church in Durham. I am a member of Blacknall and have participated fully in worship leadership as a violinist with Dave at the piano for the better part of the last 20 years. Dave also retired from Blacknall at the end of 2020. I was part of the search committee to replace Dave and we hired a wonderful music minister, Wen Reagan, to fill that role. Again, Wen is wonderful and I have enjoyed working with him so much. The church music program is in very capable hands.  But, it is different. It is still sort of a shock to the system every time I participate in worship leadership. To top that off, the head pastor at Blacknall also retired this spring. Allan Poole has been a incredible leader of our church for many years. He was there long before we began attending Blacknall in 2001. His steady voice, deep wisdom, and steadfast faith have been a constant in our lives for the past 20 years. We and the church will miss him greatly. The church is certainly in good hands with the remaining staff and I am sure that another wonderful pastor will be selected by the search committee. That doesn't change the fact that my furniture is being rearranged.

ASTA & EL SISTEMA USA

Many of you also know that I am deeply engaged in the work of both the American String Teachers Association and El Sistema USA. Around the 1st of this year, Monica Schultz, the CEO of the American String Teachers Association, announced that she would be leaving to take another position. I served on the search committee for that position and was pleased to be part of the committee who selected Lynn Tuttle to take over at the helm of ASTA.  Our organization is in good hands moving forward.  Additionally, my dear friend, longtime colleague, and former orchestra student at ERHS, Katie Wyatt, has recently stepped down from her position as CEO of El Sistema USA. I am currently treasurer of that organization and have worked very closely with Katie for the past 15 years on both the work of El Sistema USA and before that, KidzNotes here in Durham. Katie and I will certainly stay in close touch following her departure from El Sistema USA, but still, the furniture is being rearranged. Incidentally, El Sistema USA has selected a wonderful interim CEO in Angelica Cortez, and that organization is also in profoundly capable hands moving forward.

Home and Family

Here at home, my wife and I celebrated the graduation this spring of our youngest son, Cael. He had a tremendous high school career and is ready for the next step in his life. But, for any of you who have seen your youngest child graduate and prepare for college, you know that it isn't easy to think about those big steps. Particularly for the youngest one. It is different when it is the last one. To top it off, he is going a long way from home. He will be attending St Xavier University in Chicago on a baseball and academic scholarship. We are so excited for him and for his future. But, it doesn't change the fact that my furniture is definitely being rearranged at home, too.

So, today I have been thinking a bit about rearranging the furniture in my bedroom back when I was a teenager. I always loved that feeling of newness when I would walk in the room after rearranging it. I loved that little surprise of things being different. Of course, we all need stability and predictability to some degree. But, in the end, we have to embrace change and find the positives in it. As for the changes at school, I am so excited about the future and these wonderful music educators who have begun to take the lead on our program at NCSSM in Durham. They are bringing new ideas and new energy to the program.  I can now turn my attention to our new NCSSM institution opening in Morganton in the coming months.  Additionally, I am able to grow as a leader and supervisor in my new role as Fine Arts Chair for the two institutions.  There are a variety of surprises in my day and for now, many things are fresh and unpredictable.   At church, there is new energy as well. I have been participating in the new worship band format and am really enjoying the process.  We are learning songs and the congregation is being stretched with new ideas, a new way of doing things, and new leadership voices. While the search for a new pastor is only just beginning, this season will cause our congregation to stretch a bit. We will need to lean on each other more and the community will only grow closer. In my professional organizations, change is always part of the process. Boards change regularly. Volunteers change.  Staff changes. Leadership changes. My personal goal is to continue to be a steadfast presence in these organizations and to make the change a little bit smoother. Here at home, the changes are simply part of family life. Kids grow up. Seasons change. As parents, we must savor each season but embrace the change when it comes.  We must find the excitement in the new situation and embrace the possibilities.  

Through social media, I have noticed many folks rearranging the furniture in their own lives. I am noticing so many job and career changes, marriages, babies, folks changing cities, buying new homes, and other important life changes.  As your furniture is rearranged, I certainly wish you clarity to see the excitement of the new day and peace to accept the changes in your life. I will do my best to embrace the freshness of the newly rearranged furniture in my own life as well.

Peace.

Scott 

NCSSM Zoom Classes Day 1

This morning I taught my first NCSSM residential class of the COVID-19 emergency. Some friends asked me to outline my approach to online music teaching as well as some thoughts about how I am approaching music class Zoom  instruction.

My first class was Classical Piano and Guitar. This is a multi-level, individualized, residential music class that I have taught for nearly 30 years at two different institutions. About 15 years ago, I flipped this classroom before many, if any, other instructors we're moving in this direction. So, all of my instructional videos for beginning guitar, beginning piano, and music theory are already available on YouTube. They were originally made for a closed circuit video service we had at NCSSM and eventually found their way to YouTube. My more intermediate and advanced students are provided or encouraged to find performance videos or recordings to use as examples as they learn new repertoire.  Additionally, I have been operating in this quasi-online, flipped environment for so many years that it was fairly seamless to move to Zoom instruction this week.

Let me first outline my priorities for the class.

First and foremost, I do not want this class to add any extra stress to my students' lives. I will not lose sight of the fact that this is an arts elective and should be an happy enrichment for students.   That there are many new stressors for kids at this time and I don't want to add to that. The arts should be an area of safety, breath, and always a different kind of rigor.

Second, I want the class to feel as normal as possible. Our normal classroom routine is to arrive in class, greet each other, and settle in while I take roll and outline the goals for the day. After that all of my students move to their individual workstations where they can begin their guitar or piano practice and class work for the day. Since it is independently paced, everyone is at a different place in the curriculum. (Some students are beginners, some are more intermediate, and some are very advanced. Since the classroom is flipped, everyone can receive my instruction online whenever they are ready for it. Everyone is used to this environment and we will continue this environment in the online format. I will start the Zoom meeting with everyone in the meeting and give my opening remarks and take roll. Following my remarks, students may leave the meeting and begin doing their work. I will remain in the meeting and they can click back in when they are ready for feedback, assessment, or have questions. The class meets 3 times per week and I have asked the students to click in for feedback at least twice per week.  In our face-to-face classroom, we all come back together for the last 5 minutes of class for closing remarks and often a impromptu performance. My Zoom classroom will be exactly the same. I have asked everyone to set an alarm on their phone for 5 minutes prior to the end of class in order to to click back in for closing remarks.  This worked really well today and I anticipate that it will continue to work throughout the rest of the term. It was a very normal day.

Third, I want students to be conscious of their personal musical goals on a daily basis. Much of this course is built on my students' interest in either learning to play an instrument or advancing their skills on that instrument.  It is, in fact, an elective credit and everyone truly desires to be in the class. The course builds a minimum of 150 minutes a practice time a week into their academic schedule.  That said, if one's personal goals are not clearly articulated and galvanized, it is very easy to stray off course. So, I often remind students to consider their goals at the beginning of class and to make sure that every moment of the class is pointed toward achieving those goals. This will be vital in our Zoom format.

So, today went pretty much as planned. I spent a good deal of extra time at the beginning of class checking in on every student. I wanted to hear their voice. I wanted them to be able to articulate what the last week has been like for them. I want them each to know that they are seen and heard by me and their friends and colleagues in the class. The relationships, to me, are the most important thing; especially now. My intention is to lead with relationships and caring with the knowledge that the content will take care of itself.

Today, once everyone had checked in and I reviewed my revised course expectations and went over some Zoom basics for this class, everyone clicked out of the meeting and went to work. Several clicked back in in order to play a song for me or ask important questions. 5 minutes before the end of class everyone came back in and I was able to send them off with a good word and positive thought.

I feel great about the class and I am looking forward to my Music History class at 3:15 this afternoon.

I will write another post about that course as well as one about my Orchestra in coming days. I hope this is helpful to some of you out there. I would love to hear from you as you begin working in the zoom music class environment.

Peace

Scott