This week’s reading was special to me. Lighting a Spark was
great chapter. The Eastlea School is located in the slums of London. No one
expects them to do well including the students. In comes a conductor who wants
to expose the students to classical music. Classical music? The students won’t
listen to this. They won’t be able to sit still. So many negatives were brought
up by those about to receive something special. The orchestra came. The media
came. Did they come to catch a special performance or to validate the
stereotype of the Eastlea School? The first performance went off well, but not
entirely smooth. The conductor of the orchestra didn’t let the stereotypes stop
him. He humanized the entire situation by writing a letter to the students telling
them thank you and then giving them goals to achieve for the main event.
Everyone was amazed by the behavior and even enjoyed on of the students,
Anthony, as he was allowed to conduct a portion of the concert. What made all
of this possible was that one person challenged themselves to light a spark
where it was greatly needed taking the chance that the entire scenario could
blow up in his very own face.
Great post, Duwaine. I remember being impressed by this passage also. The conductor wasn't just committed to lighting a spark, but changing perceptions. He did it wisely also, by involving the students to take the lead and get exposed personally to this foreign music. Just comes to show that music is for life and has the power to transcend all barriers between our fellow brothers and sisters.
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Duwaine,
ReplyDeleteIf I had a music teacher with the same type of motivation as Zandler, my experience with classical music would have been different. Looking back at the first video we watched, I was in awe on how I could appreciate classical music even though my entire life I learned to dislike it. This probably happened due to it not being explained in a way that I could understand it. Zandler, is a wonderful composer, teacher, and mentor. We were lucky to get to know him though his writings.
Golda
Respect goes such a long way to turning around what other's assume will be a confrontational situation. I had a seventh grade music teacher who assumed that we kids would hate classical music... which we loved (this was the early 1970s, and I love this electronic music called Switched on Bach... ).
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