Students Creating an Audience

(Via AMK's Journal, I've learned this is National Blog Posting Month, which promotes writing a post every day, including weekends. I'm climbing on the bandwagon a few days late, but will give it a go--I'd love to be blogging regularly again, and this seems like a good motivation.)

I'm teaching a first-year seminar class for music majors at DePauw. My section, in which the learning is project-based, stresses, among other things, using creative ways to develop an audience. The twelve students have been divided into three teams of four, each team responsible for building a larger-than-usual audience for the final fall semester concert of one of the large ensembles (the concert band, the choirs, and the orchestra). We've been brainstorming ideas for using Facebook, YouTube, posters in unusual places (there seems to be a consensus for bathroom stalls), getting influential people (particular faculty, adminsitrators, and student leaders) to come, etc. I'll let you know how it goes.

Greg Sandow recently posted about how he and his wife worked with a faculty chamber ensemble at Florida State to use non-traditional ways to make their New York recital an event wth enough buzz that they might have a chance of getting a review in the New York Times. It's the way of the future, and I'm excited to see what my students come up with. Reading Greg's blog and interracting with him over the last few years online and off (including his visit to DePauw a year ago) has been a big influence on what I do with with my students.