Music Education Teaches More Than Reading and Playing Music

Steve Adubato sits down with the Thurnauer School of Music’s Founding Director, Dorothy Kaplan Roffman, and world renowned musician, Anthony McGill, about why music education is so important and what it teaches beyond learning notes and playing instruments.

7/12/2017 #2057

Excerpt:

"Welcome to the Tisch WNET Studio here in the heart of Lincoln Center. It is my honor and pleasure to introduce Dorothy Kaplan Roffman, Founding Director of the Thurnauer School of Music, and Anthony McGill, Principal Clarinet, the New York Philharmonic. Which has been around for 175 years? You're the first African American principal performer at that extraordinary organization? Good to see both of you. Yeah. Great to be here. The Thurnauer School of Music is? A community music school. We're a member of the National Guild of Community Arts Education, and we welcome everyone to learn about music and have fun learning about music. What's your connection to this place? Well, Dorothy and I have some mutual friends, and so she got in touch with me about doing a wonderful big gala for the program, just to support the kids, and the community music program. And I grew up at one, and so I have a, kind of affinity for that sort of thing, and so I said yes. And so we've been... We're very lucky that you... ...preparing for this big event. ...said yes. Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. Cause this guy's incredible? He is. Some of your highlights of your most recent work? Well, I kind of... I started off in the Cincinnati Symphony, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. I was there for ten years. And my recent job with the New York Phil. Of course three years ago, it was a huge deal. Basically a dream job for me for my entire life. And one highlight, I guess, of my career would be appearing with Yo-Yo Ma, and others at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Oh, had you done that? I did the inauguration. Oh... [laughter] And so... We all knew that! [laughter] Yeah. Did I reveal that? You didn't reveal anything. Yeah. You think we didn't have that picture lined up? [laughter] Yeah, so that's kind of cool. How great was that? That was awesome. It was really great. Yeah. Yeah. What a picture man. Yeah. What a day. So and you are from the South Side of Chicago? South Side of Chicago? Which makes you officially a Red... a White Sox fan? Yeah. I was gonna say Red Sox. Yeah. [laughter] Don't do that. Talk about the importance of music in the lives of young people. Well I think music belongs in everybody's life. And it's very natural. Children are born singing and wanting to bang pots and pans and music is just a part of them. And I think that having the opportunity to start out in a place where you're getting the best instruction possible, and experiencing music from many different points of view. At our school..."