MUSIC WILL TRANSCEND THE MOMENT

Stuart Welsh OMEA Band Chair

Let me preface this article with a quick disclaimer. Today is September 1 and I, like many of you, am struggling on almost every professional front. What follows ended up being far more philosophical than I originally intended; however, it really is where my head is right now.

As we begin this school year, I am fnding myself vacillating between anxiety/stress over both the immediate and longterm welfare of my program, and a sense of determination to fnd a way to give my students the best possible experience I can. Since March, we have been subjected to an almost continuous barrage of ever-changing information about what education will look like this fall. In many cases, we are now seeing just how bad things really are. We have a whole new glossary of terms and technologies to deal with as we try to transfer in-person music education to online teaching. Add to these complicating factors the even more precarious situation many of us fnd ourselves in with whether our ensembles and classes will even be ofered, and it is no wonder that our collective professional anxiety is at an all-time high.

And yet, despite all of the professional, personal, societal, political, and medical chaos, music still provides our teachers and students with a common space to fnd peace and aesthetic beauty that transcends this current chaos. For me, listening to Rachmaninof, Maslanka, Chopin, or Mortensen right now is even more restful and restorative than before the pandemic. I believe this will also be true for our students.

As we start this year, let us not forget that professionally we are musicians and teachers of music frst! The truth is, students come to our classrooms seeking the emotional, psychological, and aesthetic fulfllment they can only get from being part of an ensemble that enjoys listening to and making music. LMSs, bitmojis, scope and sequence documents, and all the rest are not only not the point, they are often huge distractions and obstacles. While what we do is obviously going to look and sound diferent in the near term, we need to let this truth be our rudder as we choose which technological rabbits to pursue. Let this truth guide us both in what we do and how we do it. Let our love of music continue to provide a directional beacon for our teaching and our students. By remaining focused on sharing our love of music with our students, I hope we can improve our prospective and remain true to the things that will actually be meaningful and transcend our current situation.

Music has helped us survive and cope on countless occasions throughout history and it will again, but only if we continue to teach our students about music’s power and beauty. It is our responsibility to infuse our students with the knowledge and passion needed for this musical transcendence to happen.