by Gary Powell
In the next five minutes, I want to change your mind: I want to challenge your long-held conceptions of the performing arts and music education. I realize that asking for a paradigm shift in how we perceive the arts is tricky business. But I no longer risk anything when I tell you that there is a lot of unmovable concrete holding up our academic institutions. And on top of that concrete, with a broader perspective of what education is and who should bring it, there does exist the upside of greater prosperity by way of building an effective network of like-minded individuals…and willing institutions.
Category: Music Lecture & Seminar Topics
Various topics Gary Powell presents to organizations.
A Pre-Lecture Invitation / Freshman Music Class UGS 302
The University of Texas at Austin
by Gary Powell
Before we go forth into the world wielding our grand visions, there is some personal housekeeping to be done. Otherwise, our grandest vision will drip onto the world as tepid back-flow from someone else’s previously held ideas. But, you say “I know what I want and how I want to change the world.” Well, for a moment let’s look at you and try to understand how many institutions you have been associated and with some living below your awareness. Answer the questions below, then add up how many “yes” answers you accumulate. Read below to assess your score. 
by Gary Powell
Before we go forth into the world wielding our grand visions, there is some personal housekeeping to be done. Otherwise, our grandest vision will drip onto the world as tepid back-flow from someone else’s previously held ideas. But, you say “I know what I want and how I want to change the world.” Well, for a moment let’s look at you and try to understand how many institutions you have been associated and with some living below your awareness. Answer the questions below, then add up how many “yes” answers you accumulate. Read below to assess your score.
Einstein, Bruner and Rand on Art and Life
by Gary Powell
Below I quote three astute observations from icons working in divergent disciplines on the importance of the individual, our creativity, life’s possibilities and how we relate to music; physicist Albert Einstein, psychologist Jerome Bruno and philosopher Ayn Rand bring the gift of perspective and importance to what we do daily as composers, musicians, performers, entrepreneurs and as humans.
“The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.” – ALBERT EINSTEIN
by Gary Powell
Below I quote three astute observations from icons working in divergent disciplines on the importance of the individual, our creativity, life’s possibilities and how we relate to music; physicist Albert Einstein, psychologist Jerome Bruno and philosopher Ayn Rand bring the gift of perspective and importance to what we do daily as composers, musicians, performers, entrepreneurs and as humans.
“The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.” – ALBERT EINSTEIN
The Color of Key
Vocal Performance Master Class
DeSales University with Dennis Razze
by Gary Powell
Dennis Razze, musical theatre specialist at DeSales University, has invited me to present a vocal master class on campus this March 24-25, 2007. This post is an invitation to you, the students, and me to get to know one another before the workshop. I want to hear your comments, suggestions, aspirations, experiences or questions before I just show up pretending to be brilliant.
The Shiver Quiver Chill and Thrill
by Gary Powell
MUSIC is the only art form that vibrates, resonates, oscillates, pulsates and thumps. This sonic thing makes it our most palpable art form. No other art shakes one’s booty quite the same.
Songwriters work in lyrics, harmony and melody. Composers work in all that plus texture, color, voicings, doublings, sections, combinations of sections and a thousand other devices and nuances. Even with the legacy of attention focused on these compositional elements, there is nothing quite as exciting as having your chest GET POUNDED. We feel music. Literally.
by Gary Powell
MUSIC is the only art form that vibrates, resonates, oscillates, pulsates and thumps. This sonic thing makes it our most palpable art form. No other art shakes one’s booty quite the same.
Songwriters work in lyrics, harmony and melody. Composers work in all that plus texture, color, voicings, doublings, sections, combinations of sections and a thousand other devices and nuances. Even with the legacy of attention focused on these compositional elements, there is nothing quite as exciting as having your chest GET POUNDED. We feel music. Literally.