Elementary Music/Music Technology Blog

Recently, my divisional director sent me a unique article about the chorus director of Staten Island’s P.S.22, Gregg Breinberg, and the rising fame of his chorus. It is an inspiring article tracing Breinberg’s journey from being a music teacher whose job was cut, taking a job as a classroom teacher, and then beginning a music program at that same school against many odds. He wanted to make a musical difference in his students’ lives and began teaching them more contemporary choral music. He also began posting his rehearsals on YouTube. The rehearsal of his students singing a variety of Tori Amos’s tunes received so many hits on YouTube, that Tori Amos heard about it and eventually visited the school and attended a rehearsal.

It is an excellent article written by Azadeh Ensha and it appeared this past week in the New York Times Education Section. To read the article, click here.

My initial reaction to this article is that I commend the teacher for posting his rehearsals on YouTube. The rehearsals are not perfect, but realistic. Teachers can watch them to see how other rehearsals are run. Parents can view the rehearsals to see the choral curriculum in action. Most importantly, Breinberg is getting his choral class out of the “traditional classroom” and into the eyes and hands of others such as parents, administrators, the community, and so on. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, we are in the times when the music programs need to be validated. With the economy in a slump and more states cutting funding from education, music teachers are now looking over their shoulders more than ever. When we can bring our music to the community, to the public, to the parents, and to the administrators so that they can see the value of music education and the positive effect that music plays in the roles of our students, then we are staying true to our profession as music educators. Lastly, if you have the permission to post your rehearsals, your students’ works, etc., and you had the capability to post them, then why wouldn’t you promote your students’ works?

Again, just my 2 cents on a very huge topic. I would love to hear your thoughts.

What do you think about posting your rehearsals on YouTube? What are your reactions to the New York Times article and the YouTube videos?

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 11:05 pm and is filed under Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.