Moshe Paranov on the Competence of Teachers

The following is an excerpt from an online publication called “The Rhythm of Successful Teaching,” by Hartt alumnus Larry D. Allen.

Mr. Allen was Principal of Boone Grove Middle School in Boone Grove, Indiana. He also taught and conducted at the college and university level at Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut), The Hartt School, Central Connecticut State University, Valparaiso University, VanderCook College of Music, Duquesne University, and Villanova University.  Among his degrees, Mr. Allen earned a Masters of Music Degree in oboe performance with Bert Lucarelli at the Hartt.

In this section of his publication, called Competence and Incompetence, Mr. Allen relays some stories about Moshe Paranov and his philosophy of teaching music.

Competence and Incompetence

One of the mysteries about teaching in public schools is that almost all of our gurus and geniuses throughout history that daily receive universal respect and admiration would not legally qualify to be our child's teacher.

Moshe Paranov

Moshe Paranov was a musical guru who provided outstanding leadership at the Hartt School throughout most of the 20th century. He and his team of outstanding teachers developed an idea: to build an outstanding school of music in the greater Hartford, Connecticut area to international acclaim and respect. Moshe’s official title was Dr. Moshe Paranov, President of the Hartt School of Music of the University of Hartford. All the children knew him as “Uncle” Moshe. He was active into his 90’s as the Artist-in-Residence for the schools in Glastonbury, Simsbury, and Torrington, Connecticut. Imagine being in demand as a teacher at 90 years young.

The reality of Dr. Paranov’s talent began to unfold in his high school years, as he entered the principal’s office one morning requesting that the principal give him permission to attend school daily for the balance of his high school year beginning at 10:30 a.m. so that he would have time to practice the piano at home from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. With little hesitation the principal presented Dr. Paranov with the bad news regarding the request even though there was strong parental support.

With that decision, Dr. Paranov moved on with his life, left school and proceeded to practice four hours per day from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., and over the years became a legend without his high school diploma. He built one of the most respected music schools in the world, and he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Philadelphia Music Academy.

Over the years Dr. Paranov interviewed hundreds of candidates to teach in his highly respected school. His mantra was, “play first and then we will talk.” If the candidate played well, the hiring took place immediately. If the candidate could not play well, there was no talking just a painful silence that communicated the message.

Each year there was an opening meeting at the Hartt School of Music where all the faculty would return after a hearty summer of touring, recording, and many exciting musical performances. Dr. Paranov would command the open meeting with humor, enthusiasm, and commitment. The opening speech went like this each year:

I want to welcome you all back to another season of excellence. What I want from each of you teachers is to know “what have you done today to help each of your students and what have you done today to make yourself a more competent musician and a more competent teacher.”

5 Questions with Jamie Dubberly

Jamie Dubberly (M. Mus. 1992), studied trombone performance at Hartt from 1990 to 1995.  He is currently living in Modesto, CA. 

What have you been up to since you graduated from Hartt?  

Wow, it’s been a while! I moved to NYC for a few years after Hartt (1997-2003), and performed with many musical theater tours in the U.S., Europe and Asia while keeping a NYC address.  I also formed a large jazz ensemble there, and was involved with some big bands, Latin bands, and orchestras while not on the tours. One highlight for me personally while living in NYC was scoring the music for a play called “Utopians,” by the group The Flying Machine, which was part of the International Fringe Festival in 1998. It was well received by the press, and was an incredible experience collaborating with those guys to write music that fit into the “world” of that work. The show was extended past the original run for more than a month!  In 2003 I moved to Northern California and began freelancing and teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area. I started to become involved with the large Latin music scene there as well as with jazz ensembles, orchestras, and other groups.  I formed my own Latin jazz ensemble in 2009, after becoming increasingly involved with Afro-Cuban music in the Bay Area, and released an album called “Road Warrior,” in 2011 with my band - Orquesta Dharma.

What are you involved with right now?

Right now I am a member of a few groups based in the Bay area. Pacific Mambo Orchestra is a large Afro-Cuban jazz and salsa/mambo group that I have been with since its inception a few years ago, and was fortunate enough to win a Grammy award this year, for their first recording “Pacific Mambo Orchestra!”  I also am a member of Avance, which is a San Francisco based salsa band, Realistic Orchestra, a very modern and progressive big band, and I play principal trombone in an opera orchestra in Modesto (where I currently live) called the Townsend Opera. I also play with various other Bay area jazz, Latin and classical groups, and sometimes perform in the pit orchestra for touring broadway shows in Sacramento.  (I ran into classmate Philip Boykin last summer in “Show Boat!”)   Currently, I am in the midst of releasing the 2nd album with Orquesta Dharma, called “La Clave del Gumbo,” which fuses New Orleans brass band music with Afro-Cuban jazz and salsa. I also am teaching trombone and low brass, various classroom courses, and ensembles at California State University- Stanislaus (Turlock), and University of the Pacific (Stockton). 

What is one of your most memorable things about your time at Hartt?

There are several memorable things for me about being at Hartt. The Hartt Honors Trombone Quartet, which competed nationally at the Fischoff (South Bend) and Coleman (Pasadena) chamber music competitions, was a really great and fun experience thanks to our amazing teacher, Ronald Borror.  Being involved with the Jazz program by playing

5 Questions with Jason Adams

Jason Adams (B.M. 1993), studied Trumpet Performance and Music Education at Hartt from 1988 to 1993.  He is currently living in Houston, TX.

What have you been up to since you graduated from Hartt?

After Hartt, I took a stint playing trumpet on a cruise ship, many thanks to Steve Davis for forcing me to improvise a bit while I played in the Big Band at Hartt, he saved me from total embarrassment! I then moved to NY and pursued a Master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music, studying with Chris Gekker, who was also my trumpet teacher at Hartt, along with Roger Murtha. I owe these two men a lot! After eight years as a band director in Massachusetts, where I also played with the Springfield Symphony, I moved to Houston, Texas for family reasons and because it is a wonderful place to teach and play music.

What are you involved with right now?

I currently teach a large studio of private students and play around Houston, Texas. I appear regularly with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra Brass Quintet and at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart with the Cathedral Brass. I teach trumpet at San Jacinto College, as well as in schools in the Spring, Klein, and Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School Districts.

What is one of your most memorable things about your time at Hartt?

Besides hanging out in the Millard lobby with my friends and working for Walter Gibson moving racks of music stands around the school, you mean? There are so many snapshots.

In my Freshman year, Dr. John Feierabend telling all the performance majors who were also pursuing music education “as a back-up plan in case performing didn’t work out” that they needed to come up with another plan, ha!

Wednesday morning trumpet lessons with Roger Murtha tapping tempo on the music stand with his pencil, and occasionally on my arm if I wasn’t paying enough attention.

5 Questions with Eugene Cantera

Eugene Cantera (B.M. ‘81) studied music education at Hartt from 1977 to 1981.  He is currently living in Carrollton, Texas.  

What have you been up to since you graduated from Hartt?

I worked at the Hartt Community Division for over 10 years beginning shortly after I graduated. I've always enjoyed one-on-one teaching and performing and managed to stay busy doing both in and around Hartford through the early 90’s.

What are you involved with right now?

Around 1993, we were in Dallas visiting friends from Connecticut when I was fortunate enough to see a sign for the Dallas School of Music and popped in. I had no idea that they had only recently opened their doors so I jokingly said to my now boss “If I relocate here will you give me a gig?” He said “yes” but little did he know that I would show up just a few weeks later ready to work. lol. I became a Partner just a few years later.

DSM is a private community music school in north Dallas. Our youngest students are 3 or 4 and our oldest are in their 80’s - and sometimes they come one after the other!  It’s a wonderful challenge that keeps things interesting and keeps one's teaching chops sharp!  We are also publishers of online music learning materials (dlpmusicbooks.com) that are used all over the world, and part of my days are spent creating content and heading up the social media aspect of those related blogs and sites.

I recently returned from an artist in residency at a private school in Adelaide, Australia.  The trip was incredible and came about almost entirely because of the work we've been doing online over the past 10 to 12 years. I wrote about how the trip came to be, what it took to plan, and how it all turned out on Tumblr - the account  it’s far too long but if anyone is interested, here is the link:

http://ow.ly/ymfsk  

What is one of your most memorable things about your time at Hartt?

5 Questions with Eric Seddon

Eric Seddon (BM, 1994), studied clarinet at Hartt from 1990-1994. He currently lives in Cleveland with his wife, Elisa (BM in flute, BS in Chemistry 1995) and their seven children.

What have you been up to since graduating from Hartt?

Twenty years is a long time, and a great deal has happened. Obviously the biggest things are personal: Elisa and I have been married for 22 years now, and have been blessed with seven beautiful children. As any creative artist will tell you, to have that sort of stability—a spouse and family who care and are supportive of your work—is irreplaceable.

Musically speaking, after Hartt I went on to graduate work at Butler University, then played in regional symphony orchestras, teaching briefly at the Cleveland Music School Settlement before being forced into an unexpected ‘early retirement.’ Since childhood, I’d had a severe heart condition that grew increasingly worse. By age 28 it had progressed to the point that I couldn’t breathe well enough to play, and doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Packing up the clarinet was excruciating, but something I had to do for my health’s sake. So for several years I turned my efforts to writing; publishing academic pieces on music history, performance reviews, CD reviews, and some poetry. I even spent a couple of years selling clarinets for a prominent German instrument maker. In short, I tried to stay involved with music in whatever way I could.

Then, around 2010, everything changed for the better. A cardiologist diagnosed me correctly, and I had open heart surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. An operation like that can change your life in many ways. Thankfully, the surgery was a resounding success, and I spent the next three years rebuilding my technique to a professional level. I’m grateful my wife and kids understood the type of drive that can make a 38 year old practice for five or six hours a day—before sunrise, during meals, and after bedtime, if necessary. I played my first gig in fourteen years this past January, and have been performing steadily, often several times a week, ever since.

 

What are you involved with right now?

The Cleveland jazz scene. I’m grateful so many musicians here have given me a chance to play—and have responded enthusiastically to what I do. George Foley was the first. Anyone on the scene here knows his work—his piano and band leading skills are mainstays at venues like Nighttown, Bon Vivant, the Barking Spider, and the Tavern Co. Through George I met a community of artists, getting opportunities to play with Gene Epstein’s Jazz Hot, Kevin Richards & Friends, jazz violinist Reed Simon, and Brad Smedley, who has hired me a couple of times to play with his gypsy jazz group Hot Djang.

Beyond these opportunities, I’m in the beginning stages of organizing my own group, Eric Seddon’s Hot Club, an ensemble featuring my clarinet through the lens of New Orleans, gypsy jazz, and swing. The idea is to have a creative fusion of those elements, which are in many ways the most important roots and continued areas of innovation for jazz clarinet.

  

What is one of the most memorable things about your time at Hartt?

There are so many that I can hardly do the question justice, but one quote will have to suffice, as it encompasses the importance of the student-teacher relationship so central to conservatory study. I entered Hartt as a young man who had just gigged in the French Quarter of New Orleans, and whose primary goal was to play jazz. Back then clarinetists weren’t really accepted into jazz programs, and because of this, I was more encouraged to get a degree in classical performance.

At my audition for Hartt, Charles Russo, who was himself a proficient jazz musician, was understanding about my jazz concept, and said he would tailor my lessons in that direction.

The Jack Elliott Legacy Project

Who doesn't recall that bass line from the start of the Barney Miller theme?  (Don't tell me if you are too young to remember Barney Miller.)  I bet you can still recall the theme song to Night Court.

Keep reading.

Born Irwin Elliott Zucker, “Jack” Elliott graduated from what is now The Hartt School in 1951, where he later was awarded an honorary doctorate and was named Alumnus of the Year (1995), and he studied composition with Isadore Freed, Arnold Franchetti, Bohuslav Martinů, and Lukas Foss.  He worked as a jazz pianist in New York and Paris in the 1950s.  Later, having been sought by Hollywood for his skill as an arranger, he moved to California to launch a celebrated career in television.  His run in television earned him the distinction of being one of Hollywood’s top composers and arrangers, and for having become the musical director of choice for big events, such as the Academy and the Emmy Awards.  He served as music director for the Grammy Awards for 30 years.  His most well-known television work includes the theme songs to Night Court, Charlie’s Angels, and Barney Miller.

In the 1970s, Elliott co-founded the Foundation for New American Music, which commissioned symphonic jazz works for performance by the celebrated classical and jazz performers of the New American Orchestra (later the American Jazz Philharmonic).  He founded the Henry Mancini Institute in 1997, serving as music director until his death in 2001.

Hilda Morales, Hartt Dance Faculty, Interviewed in BWW

BWW Interviews: Hilda Morales: An Extraordinary Career with Pennsylvania Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Antony Tudor and the Hartt School of Dance

Hilda Morales was born in N.Y. City, and grew up in Puerto Rico. Her early training was with Ana Garcia of the Ballet San Juan. At 14 years of age, Ms. Morales received a Ford Foundation Scholarship to study at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet. She danced as a principal dancer with the Pennsylvania Ballet, soloist with American Ballet Theatre, artist-in-residence with the Colorado Ballet and guest appearances with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Albuquerque Ballet and Jacksonville Ballet. During her dancing career, Ms. Morales performed in full-length classic ballets as well as works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mille, Antony Tudor, John Butler, Alvin Ailey, and Jose Limon. Ms. Morales was featured in the movie The Turning Point, in the role of Sandra, directed by Herbert Ross. She guest teaches and is on the faculty of the Central Pennsylvania summer programs, and joined The Hartt School faculty in 1998.

Broadwayworld Dance recently sat down to interview Ms. Morales.

Click here for the full interview.