We each strive to create an environment that is pleasant for our rehearsals. One that is safe and comfortable, where they sense those moments of success. A place where they are free to feel emotion or fail at a task without fear of ridicule, where students know they can try, confident in the knowledge they will be told when it is wrong, but that they will be praised when it is correct. A place where there are moments students are on the edge of their chair, and moments where a student leaves the room thinking, “Wow, I had a tear in my eye. I felt something really cool.” And aren’t they the moments we live for, the moments students will remember for the rest of their lives?

Peter Loel Boonshaft, Director of Education
KHS America

About the Author

Dr. Boonshaft is the author of the critically acclaimed best-selling books Teaching Music with Passion, Teaching Music with Purpose, and Teaching Music with Promise. Dr. Boonshaft is currently on the faculty of Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, where he is Professor of Music and Director of Bands. He has also been named Director of Education for KHS America. He was honored by the National Association for Music Education and Music For All as the first recipient of the “George M. Parks Award for Leadership in Music Education.”

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