Stepping into the next season
I have consciously known for about twenty years that I wanted to be a teacher. As I moved deeper into my education as a composer, it became clear to me that teaching would always have to be part of the picture, and it wasn’t something I was willing to compromise on. It is for this reason that my planners function with the academic calendar, and my composition schedule usually dries up in the Fall and Spring and I take my biggest creative swings during the summer.
In Spring 2021 I finished two new pieces; I rarely say yes to a mid-semester commission due date, but this time around I somehow said yes to two and added in a final submission for a contribution to the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy. For me there is always a fine line between just busy enough and an unmanageable level of commitments, and I definitely toed the other side of that line a bit more than I would like to this Spring.
As this semester winds down, I look at the work my students did and am brimming with pride. They took on challenges and grew in such significant and inspiring ways. They had great ideas and made great music. They showed up, they communicated when they needed help or when I wasn’t being clear, and they really did some amazing work. Teaching has often been something that refills my tank; I am energized by the environments and activities where learning, curiosity, risk-taking, and knowledge all come together. In the year of virtual classrooms, it was hard to create the communal space for that to happen (for me or for my students); instead, everything was depleting. However, as I look at final presentations, projects, and compositions from my students, I see how they have found space for themselves in the coursework and that empty tank is beginning to refill.
I am looking at the next couple of months as an opportunity to sink into a summer of projects. I have a big composition on the horizon and a couple of research plans in the fire that are really taking shape and gathering momentum. I’ll be designing three new courses for next year and working on Longy’s theory curriculum committee. The work never seems to stop or slow down, but I am grateful that the gears shift every season or so, and I can look back with pride and look forward with anticipation.
-KP
