01/26/10 Teaching Seminar: Exploring Persona
Hi! My name is Justin Stanley, and while I am not new to the MIE at NEC News Blog, I am beginning a new role. As a documentation specialist, I plan to inquire into my own persona as an artist-teacher-scholar and what role documentation has in developing persona.
I want to see how documentation can affect me as artist (by carefully examining my practice and my lessons for French horn), a teacher (through examination of my work at Josiah Quincy Upper School), and as a scholar (through documentation of the Teaching Seminar and Warren Sender’s Improvisation in Music Education) as I build my portfolio.
The Music-in-Education Teaching Seminar at NEC, taught by Dr. Larry Scripp, met for the first time last Tuesday. The class is a little smaller this year than the first time I took the class in the spring of 09. Last year, the class seemed like a continuation of Intro to Music-in-Education, a class offered in the Fall by Professor Scripp. This time around, however, only two of the members of the Teaching Seminar – myself included – were members of the Intro class. Therefore, I feel like I saw the differences in the curriculum more clearly right from the start.
We spent most of the class talking, in one way or another, about ourselves as artists. Larry posed this simple question to all of us: “What is your persona as an artist?†Responses were surprisingly varied, ranging from being a vessel for a composer or character in performance to breaking down barriers in various cultural settings. One student found that his role as an artist changes from performing to composing to teaching. Later, a student that assists Professor Scripp in teaching his graduate solfége class explained his role and the responsibilities that come with that role as a teaching assistant. The following video presents parts of these discussions.
I predict that we’ll be diving into the artist-teacher-scholar framework very soon in this class, discussing our readings, teaching, and plans for teaching. This class brought up some interesting ideas for me. As a documentation specialist, I try to keep a very analytical eye toward what’s going on. As a horn player, I look for simplicity. As an artist, I try to constantly expand my horizons. As a teacher, I look to help others expand their horizons or develop their own personas. I wonder how valuable it is to be able to separate and put together one’s own roles in life. This is a topic I look forward to exploring as the semester continues.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:38 am
The evolution of persona is an overarching theme for the whole MIE program: as Mateo mentioned to me yesterday, he is exploring the scholar side of the equation and coming up with new readings to balance, or create a new equilibrium among the three persona…. others are beginning to sense a fourth persona element, particularly in the Abreu Fellows class.
Larry Scripp
March 9th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Over the past several weeks, those of in Dr. Scripp’s MIE Teaching Seminar class have been discussing this idea of persona as it relates to the Artist-Teacher-Scholar model supported by NEC’s MIE program. The realization that the roles of artist, teacher, and scholar are much more synthesized than they might first appear was a bit of a breakthrough for me. Specifically, I used to perceive a much greater disconnect between artist and teacher, thinking that they were clearly separate roles. However, over the past few years I have come to realize that this was an uninformed view and that, in fact, the roles of artist and teacher are very much connected and there are numerous examples of this relationship in the music world and society in general. The role of scholar speaks to the desire to investigate, analyze and learn, and this completes the framework of Artist-Teacher-Scholar.