As a teacher, I am especially interested in helping students find their voice and unlock their creativity. I believe that learning should be deeply stimulating and enjoyable, and I strive to make this the case for all of my students.
While I have taught at a number of academic institutions, I have come to prefer working independently, both through private lessons and through master classes and workshops. This gives me the flexibility and autonomy to fully explore and develop each students’ own unique path in the way that works best for them.
I am available to teach private lessons in clarinet, bass clarinet, and composition, in-person at my home in Cambridge, MA or over Zoom/Skype.
CLARINET AND BASS CLARINET
For clarinet and bass clarinet, my primary focuses are threefold:
1. Helping students to identify and manage tension in their playing, connecting with their own breath and resonance to play with as much freedom and openness as possible. Almost all problems on clarinet/bass clarinet are ultimately rooted in insufficient breath support and/or excessive tension. And the two are related: holding tension makes it harder to breathe properly; and insufficient breath support often causes us to use tension to compensate.
2. Helping students learn effective practice techniques. Bad practicing is worse than no practicing, since it actively reinforces bad habits. Learning how to practice in a way that reinforces only good habits is one of the most important skills any musician can learn.
3. Enabling students to tap into their own innate musicality and creativity. I believe that classical music pedagogy is often overly focused on notions of “correct” and “incorrect” rather than on encouraging students to find their own artistic voices. While in technical matters, there often is a “best” way to do things, when it comes to musical interpretation, the door should be wide open, and students should be encouraged to explore, experiment, and find their voice.
I especially enjoy working with motivated adult students, at any level. I am a particularly good fit for students who are interested in exploring beyond the usual classical pedagogy of their instrument.
COMPOSITION
My composition teaching is highly flexible, and can be catered to whatever each student is interested in. I have no standard pedagogy and am not interested in imposing any particular aesthetic viewpoint.
I believe very strongly that composers should be fearless about writing the music that they love and want to hear, and I see my job primarily as helping them to do that, both by helping them to understand their own vision and by helping them find the technical tools to achieve it.
I can also offer plenty of hands-on, practical advice on composer-career related issues like getting performances, working with performers, creating parts, recording music, distributing music online, etc.
Please CONTACT ME for private lesson rates and to learn more.