Talking Up Music Education is a podcast from The NAMM Foundation about music education. Recorded live from 2018 Summer NAMM, episode 57 includes an interview with American folklore scholar and former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts Bill Ivey.
“Music education needs to make its point as loudly as possible, because there are a lot of pressures out there that's saying technology can substitute for everything,” said Ivey. “If everything of meaning can be found on a screen, I know that's not true, but there are a lot of forces lined up that want us to believe that.”
During the podcast, Ivey explores ideas for how to achieve meaning and purpose in life through art and music as American society moves away from work and wealth as a means to fulfillment.
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Sound Bites From the Podcast
“We need an alternative way for people to have lives of meaning and purpose. If you studied music, you are studying a great tradition, and it doesn't matter which form of music you pick, you are studying some great tradition.” - Bill Ivey
“The arts in general and music in particular are going to become more and more important as society, American society, is forced to say it's no longer reasonable. There's some great opportunities on the frontier for arts leaders.” - Bill Ivey
“If you look at school music, even today, you see this very slow, very steady evolution in which what was once band music, chorus, maybe a classical ensemble if you had a bigger school that had the capacity to do that, into a much more broad-based [more diverse curriculum].” - Bill Ivey
“My ear became good enough so that it became very difficult to learn to read, because my ear was always ahead of my eye.” - Bill Ivey
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Talking Up Music Education is a podcast produced by The NAMM Foundation about music education. Host Mary Luehrsen chats with teachers, parents, students and community leaders who share stories about what they are doing to create music learning opportunities. Please download, share and subscribe to keep up with the stories that make a difference in music education advocacy.