So it is time to really start preparing for school again. Syllabi are written, textbooks are ordered and oh yeah.... I have a recital to learn.

I have been contacting my students to see how they are preparing for next school year (most go "dude, that's still a month away...."). I feel like as a teacher it is important for me to try and keep my students motivated during the summer to at least practice some. That is why they all have a summer assignment that must be ready for their first lesson. In addition we do orchestral style (blind with selected excerpts) auditions for the ensembles. That gives them more to work on and a little competition to push them. In addition it gives them invaluable audition experience.

I have also gone through and selected the ensemble music for the fall. We are doing some more challenging material this year, not necessarily from a technical standpoint but from an intellectual one. I have found, looking over recent programs, that I don't think we have been doing as high a "quality" of literature as I would like. Of course how does one define "quality" in literature. As we all know that is an age old question with MANY answers. However here are a few things I like to look for:

1) Is the writing idiomatic to the instruments?
2) Does it give some sort of emotional response to the listener or performer (this can be good or bad but it needs to make us react somehow. Too much recent music leaves me with little feeling at all)?
3) Does it challenge the listener in some way?
4) Does it give us something we haven't heard before?
5) Is there a significant historical reason for doing the work (i.e. is it standard rep., a first of some sort etc.)?
6) Do I need more time to truly see and hear what all is there or is it all right on the surface? By the same token, can the piece grow and develop over time (get better with age per se)?
7) Is there a specific pedagogical reason for doing the piece?

Granted these are not all the questions I ask but I have to start somewhere.