The Walden School and Junior Conservatory Camp (JCC) is holding a Walden/JCC alumni gathering on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm at the Rocket Pizza Lounge in downtown Los Angeles. Alumni and others interested in learning more about the school are encouraged to attend the gathering. This is a good opportunity for Los Angeles parents looking for an experiential music summer camp for a budding musician to learn about the music school, which is headquartered in San Francisco; but operates the summer camp in southern New Hampshire. While the event is free, dinner is not included and people do need to RSVP to alumni@waldenschool.org if they are planning to attend.
The Walden/JCC music curriculum is student-centered since it was developed from the musical experiences that children find enjoyable. The founder, Grace Newsom Cushman, was a pioneering music educator in the 1930’s who realized that “music training was beating the creativity out of kids” says Seth Brenzel, executive director of the music school and summer camp, who will be at the Los Angeles gathering. What was true then is still true now. Technique and repertoire are often taught at the expense of natural creativity. The Walden musical pedagogy seeks to bring back the creative aspect of learning music to students. Seth compares learning to play an instrument to learning a language: First, one babbles, then one learns the structure of the language. The same is true for music. The program does teach technique and skill development but in an atmosphere of playful creativity, mostly composing, improvising, and performing songs. A unit within the curriculum culminates in a “capstone experience” where students create a musical piece demonstrating mastery and fluency of the techniques learned for that segment.
At the beginning the school only offered a summer camp, but soon realized that this approach to teaching music must be shared with a wider audience. They established a music teacher training program which educates participants on how to unlock the act of the creative process. Thus, students in the Los Angeles area can still benefit. If you are looking for a music teacher trained via the Walden School Musicianship program for school or personal hire, they will provide names of teachers in the area. This approach just may be what is needed to recapture the joy of creating music.
(Note: The music school has no affiliation with the Walden School in Pasadena.)
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