Description
Foreword by Craig Kirchhoff
Director Emeritus of University Bands, The University of Minnesota – Minneapolis
I am struck by the true genius of the collaborative effort between Frank Ticheli and Gregory B. Rudgers. Their collaboration has yielded a powerful method that brilliantly enhances its pedagogy with expressive and elegant original compositions. That’s what sets this book apart: a skillful pedagogy that supports and prepares its students for playing expressive music.
We have a recognized master teacher in Rudgers, and one of the world’s most distinguished composers of concert band music in Ticheli. At the heart, a core belief that students of all ages can be moved by the expressive power of music. Ticheli’s original compositions in the present volume are extraordinary. The pedagogical method preparing students is creative and logical, ensuring skill development, encouraging student confidence, celebrating student success. The marriage of pedagogy and music is seamless.
In Ticheli’s “Creative Corner” chapters, students have the opportunity to participate in the compositional process. By the end of this book, wind and percussion instrumentalists play solo pieces (with optional piano accompaniment), percussionists play a percussion ensemble work, and students have collaborated as an ensemble to study and play twenty-four wind band compositions — all solos and all ensemble works composed by Ticheli.
Such a valuable contribution to the field of music education is long overdue. It is my hope that you and your students will take advantage of the creative discovery afforded here — of everything this book has to offer — and that you will enjoy the journey ahead!
