My goal is to bring a lifelong understanding and appreciation of music to all my students, whatever their needs and goals may be — performance, theory of composition, or a fun extra-curricular activity. I want them to come away with a new understanding and a proud skill-set of diverse levels of musicianship. Music should never be a chore, but rather play, inspiration, and enjoyment of art.
I always listen to my students to understand what they want and what caters to them. Some students need to find the right piece for them, whether that’s classical, jazz, rock, pop, or whatever they attach themselves to. Others need time or interactive experiences to understand music. My job is to meet each student’s needs and help them appreciate music on a deeper, fundamental level.
I have been teaching for over ten years.
Music education! I am most proud of building programs that unite professional musicians with students, and seeing students brought to the pinnacle of performance alongside professional counterparts. I am very proud of my years working in those environments.
I sadly had to leave the school I taught at in Connecticut, and the kindest compliment I received were the heartfelt tears and sweet gifts that were given to me by my students at the end-of-year performing arts dinner. Not to mention the “We miss Mr. Sean” messages on the board after I left. That was a truly “awwww-some” moment for me!
I had the opportunity to travel to Milan, Italy to visit La Scala. It was a life-changing experience on many levels — not just being in the world-famous opera house, but also being surrounded by so much art and culture. A highlight was a visit to the Monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie, where Leonardo DaVinci’s famous painting, “The Last Supper” hangs. It is much more impressive in real life than in books and on postcards.
Only English, but I can sing in Latin and French. I am working on improving my enunciation.
J. S. Bach. I feel that I can obviously learn a lot from him, but mostly because I want to teach him about jazz, and watch what he could do with this genre of music. I bet he’d be terrific!
I love science and physics, and I often talk in my lessons about the engineering and acoustics of the instruments my students are playing, or even about the technology of recording, and the techniques used on their favorite albums and artists. My students are fascinated to learn these aspects of music and instruments.
I listen to a lot of Musical Theater, as that is my compositional specialty, but lately I have also been listening to a lot of baroque operas by Handel and Monteverdi. I also love to listen to more contemporary classical music, as well as golden-age jazz and others.
