Music Trade Review

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The J/l mc
Established 1879
Vol. 113-No. 10
PIONEER
2,895th Issue
REVIEW
75th Year
THE
October, 1954
PUBLICATION
OF
THE
75lh Year
MUSIC
INDUSTRY
Initial Piano Workshop in Westchester
County Forerunner of New York State Plan
YJJ7ESTCH ESTER County, New York
** had its first introduction to a
piano keyboard workshop during the
week of September 27th when Mrs. Fay
Templeton Frisch, Chairman of the
National Committee on Piano Instruc-
tion of the Music Educators National
Conference, conducted a 5-day session
in the Park School at Ossining, N. Y.
The sessions were held each afternoon
from 3:30 to 6:30 and there were 32
teachers attending. So important was
this initial endeavor in that part of the
state that Dr. Joseph Saetveit, New
York State school supervisor of music,
came down from Albany to attend some
of the sessions.
Newspapers Played It Up
The Westchester chain of newspapers
covered the event fully with a column
story and published the photograph
which is reproduced on the front cover
of the REVIEW this month. The ar-
ticle and photo were seen by several
hundred thousand readers in the county.
The story was written under an Os-
sining dateline by Eleanor Ney. It had
a two-column headline of "Forerunner
of State Plan—Teachers Become Pupils
to Learn Piano Playing" and read as
follows:
"The tune of "Hot Cross Buns", fing-
ered on paper piano keyboards this
week by 32 concentrating teachers re-
turned temporarily to pupil status, her-
alds the first public school "keyboard
workshop" in the East and the possible
forerunner of a statewide music educa-
tion project.
Dr. Saetveit Present
"Dr. Joseph Saetveit, supervisor of
music of the New York State Educa-
tion Department, arrived from Albany
yesterday to observe progress by the
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, OCTOBER, 1954
elementary school teachers in absorb-
ing, in a single week, the techniques of
piano transposition, simple chords and
accompaniments.
"Fay Templeton Frisch of New Ro-
chelle, chairman of the National Com-
mittee on Piano Instruction of the
Music Educators National Conference,
is conducting the workshop at the Park
School. It was organized by Miss Fran-
ces Wilcox, supervisor of music in the
Ossining schols, under auspices of the
Ossining schools, under auspices of the
request of the teachers.
Music's Role Increasing
"Radio, television, recordings and
other media have brought music into
sharp focus for today's school pupils,"
explained Mrs. Frisch. "Everyone wants
to 'make music'. Greater leisure and the
recognition among adults of the values
of music as an outlet and an avocation
have given impetus to concern for more
and better music expression, not only
in this country but abroad.
"The classroom teacher cannot take
the place of the music specialist, but
with crowded classes more of the work
falls upon her shoulders. We also
recognize that no one knows the indi-
vidual pupil's problems and capacities
better than his classroom teacher.
"•If she has some piano fundamentals
she may have a key to personality re-
lease for some child, and to an enrich-
ing experience for many children. We
are not trying to make pianists out of
classroom teachers, we are merely pro-
viding an increasingly-important teach-
ing tool."
Paper Keyboards Used
"Upon paper keyboards on the tables
before them or at the seven pianos
rounded up from the Park School first-
floor classrooms, the 32 elementary
school teachers are spending three
hours after school each afternoon this
week.
'Everyone Has Potential'
"Hot Cross Buns" is followed by
"Old MacDonald Had a Farm", scales,
chords and fingering as the group mem-
bers gain confidence in their abilities
to lead and accompany classroom music
expression.
"Everyone has a music potential,"
affirms Mrs. Frisch, "and this group is
discovering self-confidence in that fact,
proved in this workshop."
Pupils Attended
"Pupils from the Ossining schools
attended a demonstration session given
yesterday during the workshop by Mrs.
Frisch. formerly for 20 years super-
visor of piano classes in the New Ro-
chelle public schools. She has been a
member of the Summer faculty of the
University of Southern California for
the past four years and has conducted
group piano workshops at the Univer-
sities of Montana and Hawaii."
Mrs.
Frisch recently conducted a
workshop tour in Missouri and Iowa.
There were nearly 200 in the workshops
at Southwestern State College in
Springfield and Northeastern State Col-
lege in Kirksville, and just about 100
at the University of Columbia.
Mrs. Frisch went to the University
of Southern California in August for
her fifth summer at the University
where she conducts the piano work-
shops.
Mrs .Frisch, besides conducting the
workshops, is now completing the
fourth and fifth books of her piano
series.