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The things students do
The past four weeks have been quite difficult for me. I had to take a significant amount of time away from my day job as a middle school music teacher to care for my father. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about that as I continue to cope with losing him. However with all…
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Singing President
Recently I listened to another installment of the New York Times Popcast and became even more impressed with the level of discussion about America and in particular it’s relationship with President Obama. This is as close as I ever hope to get in communicating anything political in this forum, however there were a lot of good…
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Talking
This time of year has traditionally been a time of reflection on the year which had just passed. Sometimes I even look through some old journals just to see what I was on my mind previous years. Recently I had opportunity to participate, prepared and give a TEDx talk. The process of putting it all together…
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Color and Classical Music In December
Sometimes I look out into the audience when I perform music. I don’t mean to take an subconscious pole of the demographics of the audience, but it’s hard not to notice. The picture above isn’t what I usually see, in fact the picture below is more of the reality of I tend to notice. Often…
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Small Neighborhood Music School
The Bloomingdale School Of Music is the place where I took private trumpet lessons, started loving chamber music and starting learning about music composition. It was one of the most important paths set before me. I had my first moments of personal success at this small neighborhood community music school. Perhaps this is the place…
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Picking a high school in New York City
Many of my middle school students already know where they will be attending high school. When I was their age I had no ideas where I’d be spending the bulk of my teen age years. There were only 3 real choices for me at the time. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts,…
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Safe places for me
My kid has anxiety, and I had anxiety as a kid until I started doing music. 4th and 5th Grade I was in Mr. Osborn’s boys choir. I took a few ass kicking those years. In the 6th grade I did my best (with a great deal of success) to not be seen at all.…
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From Marching Bands To Thought Entrepreneurs
I think I was in shock. The day had come and I was standing in line in my cap and gown ready to go through a security check point to enter the commencements for our graduation from graduate school. My friend was next to me and he was acting like everything was normal, singing songs…
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Composition out of imitation
“What gives the artist real prestige is his imitators.” Igor Stravinsky I deal with insomnia often. When this happens I try to do something productive. I’m a teacher, so I try to use this time to think about teaching or projects for my students. But before I was a music teacher I was a freelance…
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Great Find, Funny Path
It’s funny how one comes into contact with new music. I was recently listening to the New York Times Popcast titled “The Return of New York Rap” , which offered a unique discussion about the lack of rap music coming out of NYC the past decade. As I am a native New Yorker and still feel…
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Ed Castro's Blog 