PT45: “Music is about Art, not Correctness” with Charles Latshaw

I had so many different titles that I wanted to put on this episode. We talked about building your library of lessons and teachers and experiences, the art of music, and how to hack your microwave. It was so hard to pick just one. A big part of what we discuss in this episode is exactly what we’re doing with Podium Time: learning from as many teachers as we can. Charles’s revelation about music while studying in Vienna really hit me as something that I’d been hearing all over but have had trouble applying: Music is about Art, not Correctness. I notice it in my preparation for a workshop, trying to think of everything that the teacher could think of and forgetting that we’re creating expression with what we do. Let this episode really spark a new appreciation for what we are doing on the podium and on our instruments any time we create music. Let it inspire your teaching! And while you’re teaching, own your mistakes!

This week we discuss:

  • Don’t bind your scores with a comb!
  • The microwave people hate him!
  • We are athletes!
  • Reddit AMA with Charles
  • Teaching what a conductor does
  • Gunther Schuller’s The Compleat Conductor
  • How to use recordings
  • Learning from multiple teachers
  • Mark everything in your score – Build a Library of Markings
  • Interview with Kevin Noe
  • Learn from your lineage
  • Benefits of a large program
  • Indiana’s ad-hoc orchestras
  • David Effron
  • Arthur Fagan
  • Thomas Wilkins
  • John Poole
  • Jim Gallagher
  • Ansbacher Conducting Fellowship
  • Pre and Post-Austria paradigm shift
  • “For me now, music has become about art and not about correctness.”
  • What you can learn from a scale
  • Make your own cheese
  • Amy Lee
  • The joy of concertos
  • Freedom to experiment in rehearsal and performance
  • Own up to your mistakes
  • “Tonight only: Bizet’s Carmen in Russian”
  • Hire guest conductors that do what you don’t do
  • William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony
  • Notes on programming underrepresented works
  • Charles’s Billboards

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