iMA Newsletter 4981 Highway 7, Suite 1 International Music ... 2016.pdf · iMA Newsletter Voted top...

iMA Newsletter Voted top 100 educators in the world by the International Biographical Centre Winner of the Consumers’ Choice Award for best music school in the GTA. Winner of the Royal Conservatory of Music Gold Medal for Teaching Excellence. Winner of the York Region Character Community Award. Markham Board of Trade Business Excellence Award finalist. Year XX, No. 2 February 2016

WELCOMING OUR NEW STUDENTS Mathushan M. (Piano) John N. (Piano) Jenny J. (Clarinet) Yathev S. (Piano)

IMA STUDENTS BIRTHDAYS IN FEBRUARY Luis V., Zoe T., Kyler N., Olivia M., Felix Z ., Raoul A., Radomir D ., Bethany T., Harry S., Dailiang C., Mateja L., Alina B., Kayleigh B., Kayvon N.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! IMPORTANT DAYS IN FEBRUARY

February 1 -‐ PA day (YR) February 6 -‐ Flato Markham Theatre. Kindred Spirits Orchestra. Pictures at an Exhibition February 8 -‐ Chinese New Year February 14 -‐ Valentine’s Day February 15 -‐ Family Day. School is open. February 15 -‐ RCM Spring session applications deadline February 17-‐28 -‐ Kiwanis Music Festival

NEWS THE INTERNATIONAL MUSIC ACADEMY HAS WON THE 2016 CONSUMER CHOICE AWARD FOR BEST PRIVATE MUSIC SCHOOL IN YORK REGION. In his congratulatory letter to the International Music Academy Faculty and Staff, Mr. Marcl Sbrollini, President of the Consumer Choice Award wrote:

“… the consumers and the business in your community have selected you as the top-‐ranked organization in your industry. You are now part of a very select group of business owners and entrepreneurs recognized for their business excellence in the GTA.”

Consumer Choice Award was established in 1987 and is considered to be the most distinguished award for business excellence in Canada. Official Announcement of the Award will be made on February 4, 2016 in Le Parc Centre in Richmond Hill. This is the second time the International Music Academy has won the Consumer Choice Award for best private music school, within the past 5 years. Warmest thanks to our students, their parents and all clients for their confidence in the International Music Academy. Congratulations to all teachers and staff for their dedication and work at the highest international standards. THE INTERNATIONAL MUSIC ACADEMY IS GROWING The International Music Academy has recently acquired a new real estate property in Stouffville, Ontario and has started the development of facilities for a new state-‐of-‐the-‐art music school. Our current location in Markham will continue providing high quality programs and services to Markham’s residents.

International Music Academy

4981 Highway 7, Suite 1

Markham ON L3R 1N1 Canada M1K 3K1

Phone: 905.489.4620 Fax: 905.489.4621

www.internationalmusicacademy.ca [email protected]

The International Music Academy -‐ Stouffville branch, will open in the spring of 2016. The school will offer private and group lessons in all instruments, singing, music theory and history, preparation for RCM examinations, festivals and competitions. Large size studios will be equipped with high-‐quality professional instruments and with the latest audiovisual technology that would provide students with array of opportunities to acquire the skills that would allow them to enjoy music for life. Frequent updates on the construction process will be provided through the IMA monthly Newsletter.

Architect: Sam Morgan Architect, Toronto Designer: New Image Architectural Design, Newmarket Engineer: A-‐D Engineering Group Ltd., Newmarket Compliance: Town of Stouffville Chief Building Official. The Town of Stouffville is located just 10 km north of Markham and has seen unprecedented growth during the past few years. With current population approaching 40,000 residents, the town has become the home of mostly families of young professionals with children. GET A $30 CREDIT ON YOUR NEXT MONTH TUITION We have been very pleased with the continuous success of our students. They have improved a great deal and we share their excitement with their families, friends, neighbors, and schoolmates. We appreciate your interest towards our programs and services. We are always very happy to welcome new students of all ages, levels, and instruments to the iMA. Please tell your friends about your experience with the International Music Academy. Do you know someone who is thinking of taking music lessons or who has children who may be interested in getting their hands on a musical instrument or singing? Do you know a teenager who needs a high school OAC credit? Do you know an adult who has wanted for a long time to learn how to play a musical instrument but has never had the time or inclination? Please tell them about the IMA.

As an appreciation for your referral, we will give you a $30 credit for each new student who registers at the International Music Academy as a result of your referral. As we value your friends as much as we value you, we will offer to each referred student a $30 credit as well. FOLLOW US ON Stay in touch and follow the IMA latest news on Facebook. Visit https://www.facebook.com/International-‐Music-‐Academy-‐33444769758/ and become a friend of the International Music Academy. PERSONALIZED IMA GIFT CARD The IMA offers personalized Gift Cards that could be used as thoughtful birthday, holiday, bar/bat Mitzvah, graduation gift or for any other occasions as well as to encourage someone to start learning a musical instrument or singing. The card can be used for any products or services.

The gift card is available for any amount. As cards are personalized with the name of the person who will receive it as well as with the name of the person who purchase it, requests have to be made 1 day

in advance. Cards can be ordered in person, by phone at 905.489.4620 or by e-‐mail at [email protected]. At the time the card is ordered, a non-‐refundable $5 deposit is required. The full value of the card is paid upon pick-‐up (and the deposit is credited towards the purchase price). Payments can be made by any major credit card, cheque or cash as well as through the accounts of the IMA Clients. COMPOSERS’ ANNIVERSARIES IN FEBRUARY

3/02/1809 Mendelssohn born 13/02/1883 Wagner died 15/02/1857 Glinka died 23/2/1934 Elgar died 23/2/1685 Handel born 27/2/1887 Borodin died 29/2/1792 Rossini born

Where you born or do you know someone who was born on the same day as these famous composers? Drop us e-‐mail at [email protected] to let us know.

FEATURED TEACHER OF THE MONTH Ramon Taranco, B.Mus. Guitar studies

Ramon Taranco was born in Havana Cuba to a Mexican-‐American mother and a Cuban father. The family immigrated to Toronto, Canada when Ramon was 5 yrs old. As a teenager, Ramon taught himself to play guitar and soon was playing in Rock, R ‘n B, and Blues bands. He also studied violin and played in his high school’s orchestra. After hearing

Andre Segovia perform at Massey Hall, Ramon was inspired to play classical and Spanish solo guitar music so he embarked upon six years of studies at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music. Ramon studied Classical guitar with Norbert Kraft, Carl van Fleggelin, Eli Kassner, world-‐renowned Cuban classical guitarist Leo Brouwer, and with British master, John Mills. He studied solo jazz guitar with the legendary Lenny Breau and jazz improvisation with former Duke Ellington band member, flugelhorn player, Fred Stone. While living in NYC, Ramon studied with flamenco guitar master Dennis Koster. As a guitar teacher, Ramon has experience on many levels. While still a student at the RCM, Ramon received a teaching position at the Koffler Centre for the Arts under the direction of then TSO conductor Victor Feldbrill -‐ a position he held for four years. While still living in Toronto, Ramon received four Ontario Arts Council "Artist in the Schools" teaching grants that opened the doors for Ramon to teach improvisation and guitar in four Toronto area high schools. During this time Ramon further educated young people through performances of his concert/lecture program "A Guitar for All Seasons" which he presented in numerous schools, colleges and libraries all over Ontario -‐ as a member of Prologue to the Performing Arts and on his own. Ramon was also the music consultant, band coach, and guitar instructor for the film P.C.U. (20th Century Fox). In 1994 Ramon moved to NYC where he taught guitar lessons in his private studios in Manhattan and Queens and also at the Astoria School of Music. Ramon currently teaches at Markham’s International Music Academy and is preparing to record his third CD of original music. As a composer Ramon has received both Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council grants for composition. As a recording artist, he received an Ontario Arts Council Multi-‐Cultural recording grant and a F.A.C.T.O.R recording grant. Taranco later became a F.A.C.T.O.R adjudicator. Ramon's compositions have been featured in films: “L'Hombre” for the Canadian Film Center and NYC documentary, “Poverty Outlaw.” Ramon has released two CD's of original music which have received airplay in fifty countries (for example Radio Havana, Cuba; and Spanish

National Radio) and have placed in the top 10 of world beat, blues, jazz and roots music radio charts. As a performer of classical, blues, jazz, and worldbeat music in the Toronto music scene, Ramon played solo, in duos and in bands: live on CBC radio shows (Morningside, Musical Friends), and in concerts (Hart House Theater U of T, Harbourfront’s Waters Edge Café and Brigantine Room, St. Lawrence Centre, Ontario College of Art, Laurentian University) in clubs and in restaurants (The Riverboat, Top of the Senator, C'est What.) While residing in New York for 18 years, Ramon frequently performed on radio (WBAI). As a soloist and in duos with (jazz violin, percussion, blues harmonica) and band situations, Ramon has performed in concert at the Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art’s World Beat Jazz series ,Bronx Museum of Modern Art African Heritage Day, The Queens Museum of Art, Harbor Jazz Festival, Manhattanville University, Monroe College, New York State University @ Stoney Brook, Hellenic Cultural Center, Javits Center Latin Heritage Month celebration for the City of NY, Newark Public Library( blues concert celebrating Martin Luther King Jr's birthday ) Brooklyn Academy of Music Majestic Theater: onstage guitarist in small ensemble for the opera "Missionaries" by Liz Swados; in NYC night clubs, restaurants and bars such as The Groove, Izzy Bar, Fannies, La Belle Epoque, Mozart Cafe, Finally Freds, Rose’s Turn and Cornelia Street Cafe: Soul of the Blues Festival. Mr. Taranco was happy to answer a few questions for our students and parents: 1. What do you like most about teaching? Teaching is hard work but it always feels good when students start to make progress. Also the social aspect of teaching, interacting with all the students and their different personalities can be fun. 2. How do you inspire students to practice more? A teacher has to be very passionate about music. This passion can sometimes trigger the students’ own passion for music. A teacher has to be or to do three different things for the student. First, he inspires the student by playing for the student. Second,he is a coach, a music trainer instilling the virtues of hard work and repetitious practice. I often tell students the most important thing I will teach them to do is how to practice. Playing a musical instrument, especially guitar, is a very physical act requiring strength and stamina. "Without discipline there can never be happiness." (Siddartha). Third, he has to try and make learning music a little fun. A teacher with a good sense of humor and a sense of fun is going to reach more students and make the learning experience a easier to take. 3. What roles does performance play in student’s development? Performing and hard practice get the maximum out of a player. If you can do both you will be a complete player. Performing no matter how or where will always raise your standard of playing. For the amateur their are student recitals, performance exams, playing at the local church, at school for your friends, in a family setting -‐ any chance to perform for anybody will force you to raise your level. My favorite opporutnity for students is the

open mic venue; the pressure to perform will do wonders for your playing. 4. Who are your favourite composers? I love many different types of music classical, pop, jazz, blues, rock, R & B. For classical composers I love Bach, Beethoven, Bartok and Mozart. For jazz, I love Mingus, Coltrane, Miles Davis, Roland Kirk, Monk, blues Skip James, SonHouse, JB Lenoir, Earl King, Albert King, Freddie King, T Bone Walker. I love country guitarist Don Rich (Buck Owens Band). Can't forget my favorite Jimi Hendrix oh well you get the idea. 5. What was the last piece of music (sheet music or a recording) you purchased for yourself? The last CD I bought was Stevie Wonders "Inner Visions". The most recent pieces I worked on were a solo guitar arrangement of Dave Brubeck’s jazz hit "Take Five", arranged for guitar by Jorge Morel and Chet Atkins. Also "A Little Blues" -‐ a solo jazz guitar composition by one of my teachers, the legendary Lenny Breau. Also, Gershwin and Prokofiev -‐ I love his piano sonatas. I believe they are the modern equals to Beethoven’s piano sonatas. FEATURED STUDENTS OF THE MONTH Stuart Cork

What instrument do you play? I play both acoustic and electric guitars, as well as a 12-‐string guitar. How long have you taken lessons? I've been with the International Music Academy for about 5 years. Who are your favourite musical artists? There are several different tastes and styles of music that I like -‐ I enjoy improvisational slow blues as played by the late BB King, Gary Moore or Eric Clapton; I like the sound of '60's Surf Rock including original tunes by such bands as the Ventures and the Atlantics and the adaptations of classic and folk melodies by the many Euro Surf

bands, and also classic rock such as played by ELO, Zeppelin or Pink Floyd. What are your other hobbies, besides music? Besides music, I enjoy restoring, displaying and collecting classic cars, flying radio control aircraft, and I like to go fishing, boating, and spend time with the family at our cottage in Killarney. Favorite food? My favourite food would be anything barbequed. What is the coolest thing you’ve learnt in your lessons in the past three months? The coolest thing I have learned in the past three months, as well and most anytime in the past couple of years, is when I am able to play the specific songs that I have been previously enjoying as listening material, and also to develop and work out my own improvisations and solos for those songs. Do you have any performance coming up? Nothing coming up for the next few months, just learning more and practicing… E-‐mail to [email protected] a photo of yourself (or your child) together with the answers of the questions above. The deadline for submissions is the 15th of every month. We will feature you in one of the next issues of the newsletter. PET OF THE MONTH Send a photo of your pet together with following information and we will publish it in one of the next issues of the IMA newsletter. What is the name of your pet? How old is he/she? What kind of breed our pet is (if applicable)? How long have you had him/her for? Any special circumstances around getting the pet (i.e. a gift, foster pet, etc.)? The funniest story about you pet? Any special skills or abilities.

FEATURED ARTICLE

A Point of View: Why it's time to turn the music off

Is it time for a new British national anthem? Who should sit in the House of Lords? Is there any such thing as a wise person? Why the world needs more sermons? It's time to switch the music off in order to rediscover its true value, says Roger Scruton. In almost every public place today the ears are assailed by the sound of pop music. In shopping malls, public houses, restaurants, hotels and elevators the ambient sound is not human conversation but the music disgorged into the air by speakers -‐ usually invisible and inaccessible speakers that cannot be punished for their impertinence. Some places brand themselves with their own signature sound -‐ folk, jazz or excerpts from the Broadway musicals. For the most part, however, the prevailing music is of an astounding banality -‐

it is there in order not to be really there. It is a background to the business of consuming things, a surrounding nothingness on which we scribble the graffiti of our desires.

The worst forms of this music -‐ sometimes known, after the trade name, as Muzak -‐ are produced without the intervention of musicians, being put together on a computer from a repertoire of standard effects. The background sounds of modern life are therefore less and less human. Rhythm, which is the sound of life, has been largely replaced by electrical pulses, produced by a machine programmed to repeat itself ad infinitum, and to thrust its booming bass notes into the very bones of the victim. Whole areas of civic space in our society are now policed by this sound, which drives anybody with the slightest feeling for music to distraction, and ensures that for many of us a visit to the pub or a meal in a restaurant have lost their residual meaning. These are no longer social events, but experiments in endurance, as you shout at each other over the deadly noise.

Skateboarder listens to music through headphones in Carracas There are two reasons why this vacuous music has flown into every public space. One is the vast change in the human ear brought about by the mass production of sound. The other is the failure of the law to protect us from the result.

For our ancestors music was something that you sat down to listen to, or which you made for yourself. It was a ceremonial event, in which you participated, either as a passive listener or as an active performer. Either way you were giving and receiving life, sharing in something of great social significance. With the advent of the gramophone, the radio and now the iPod, music is no longer something that you must make for yourself, nor is it something that you sit down to listen to. It follows you about wherever you go, and you switch it on as a background. It is not so much listened to as overheard. The banal melodies and mechanical rhythms, the stock harmonies recycled in song after song, these things signify the eclipse of the musical ear. For many people music is no longer a language shaped by our deepest feelings, no longer a place of refuge from the tawdriness and distraction of everyday life, no longer an art in which gripping ideas are followed to their distant conclusions. It is simply a carpet of sound, designed to bring all thought and feeling down to its own level lest something serious might be felt or said.

An Indian man protects his ears with his hands during a loudspeaker competition ahead of the Dussehra Hindu festival in Allahabad on September 20, 2015 And there is no law against it. You are rightly prevented from polluting the air of a restaurant with smoke; but nothing prevents the owner from inflicting this far worse pollution on his customers -‐ pollution that poisons not the body but the soul. Of course, you can ask for the music to be turned off. But you will be met by blank and even hostile stares. What kind of a weirdo is this, who wants to impose his will on everyone? Who is he to dictate the noise levels? Such is the usual response. Background music is the default position. It is no longer silence to which we return when we cease to speak, but the empty chatter of the music-‐box. Silence must be excluded at all cost, since it awakens you to the emptiness that looms on the edge of modern life, threatening to confront you with the dreadful truth, that you have nothing whatever to say. On the other hand, if we knew silence for what once it was, as the plastic material

that is shaped by real music, then it would not frighten us at all. Pop pollution has an effect on musical appreciation comparable to pornography on sex -‐ all that is beautiful, special and full of love is replaced by a grinding mechanism I don't think we should underestimate the tyranny exerted over the human brain by pop. The constant repetition of musical platitudes, at every moment of the day and night, leads to addiction. It also has a dampening effect on conversation. I suspect that the increasing inarticulateness of the young, their inability to complete their sentences, to find telling phrases or images, or to say anything at all without calling upon the word "like" to help them out, has something to do with the fact that their ears are constantly stuffed with cotton wool. Round and round in their heads go the chord progressions, the empty lyrics and the impoverished fragments of tune, and boom goes the brain box at the start of every bar.

One Direction in concert in Seattle, July 2015 Pop pollution has an effect on musical appreciation comparable to pornography on sex. All that is beautiful, special and full of love is replaced by a grinding mechanism. Just as porn addicts lose the capacity for real sexual love, so do pop addicts lose the capacity for genuine musical experience. The magical encounter with the Beethoven quartet, the Bach suite, the Brahms symphony, in which your whole being is gripped by melodic and harmonic ideas and taken on a journey through the imaginary space of music -‐ that experience which lies at the heart of our civilisation and which is an incomparable source of joy and consolation to all those who know it -‐ is no longer a universal resource. It has become a private eccentricity, something that a dwindling body of oldies cling to, but which is regarded by many of the young as irrelevant. Increasingly young ears cannot reach out to this enchanted world, and therefore turn away from it. The loss is theirs, but you cannot explain that to them, any more than you can

explain the beauty of colours to someone who is congenitally blind. "By teaching children to play musical instruments, we acquaint them with the roots of music in human life" Is there a remedy? Yes, I think there is. The addictive ear, dulled by repetition, is shut tight as a clam around its pointless treasures. But you can prise it open with musical instruments. Put a young person in a position to make music and not just to hear it and immediately the ear begins to recover from its lethargy. By teaching children to play musical instruments, we acquaint them with the roots of music in human life.

A boy plays the violin The next step is to introduce the idea of judgment. The belief that there is a difference between good and bad, meaningful and meaningless, profound and vapid, exciting and banal -‐ this belief was once fundamental to musical education. But it offends against political correctness. Today there is only my taste and yours. The suggestion that my taste is better than yours is elitist, an offence against equality. But unless we teach children to judge, to discriminate, to recognise the difference between music of lasting value and mere ephemera, we give up on the task of education. Judgment is the precondition of true enjoyment, and the prelude to understanding art in all its forms.

Lady Gaga in concert, New York 2013

The good news is that, in their hearts, people are aware of this. All who have had the experience of teaching music appreciation know it to be so. The first step is to introduce the precious commodity of silence, so that your students are listening with open ears to the cosmos, and are beginning to forget their addictive pleasures. Then you play to them the things that you love. They will be bewildered at first. After all, how can this old geezer sit still for 50 minutes listening to something that hasn't got a beat or a tune? Then you discuss the things that they love. Had they noticed, for example, that Lady Gaga in "Poker Face" stays for most of the tune on one note? Is that real melody? After a while they will see that they have in fact been making judgments all along -‐ it is just that they were making the wrong ones. When Metallica appeared at the 2014 Glastonbury festival there was a wake-‐up moment of this kind -‐ the recognition that these guys, unlike so many who had performed there, actually had something to say. Yes, there are distinctions of quality, even in the realm of pop.

Metallica in concert at Glastonbury 2014 The next stage is to get the students to perform -‐ to sing in unison, and then in parts. Very soon they will understand that music is not a blanket with which to shut out communication, but a form of communication in itself. And gradually they will know the place of this great art form in the world that they have inherited. Our civilisation was made by music and the musical tradition that we have inherited is as worthy of praise as all our other achievements in art, science, religion and politics. This musical tradition speaks for itself but to hear it you must clear the air of noise. To comment on this story or anything else you have read in the Newsletter, head over to the IMA Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

International Music Academy

GIFT CERTIFICATE for new students only

ONE FREE LESSON

Call the IMA Office at 905.489.4620 to schedule your first lesson.

Once scheduled, the lesson cannot be rescheduled. Cannot be combined with any other offer. No refunds, no exchanges.

Music is sooooooooo beuatiful!

Register for lessons by

February 15, 2016 and receive

$30 off New students only.

Cannot be combined with any other offer.

REFER A NEW STUDENT and GET ONE FREE LESSON! When you refer a new student to the IMA, who registers for lesson, you will get one free lesson for every new student. So, if you refer the IMA to 2 new students, we will give you 2 free lessons; for 3 new students – 3 free lessons etc. Fill in the coupon below and leave it with the IMA Office administrator. Your name: ______________________________ Name of the new student: __________________ You can print or photocopy this coupon as many times as you need.

Cannot be combined with any other offer.

iMA Newsletter 4981 Highway 7, Suite 1 International Music ... 2016.pdf · iMA Newsletter Voted top...

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