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Your go-to resource for all things band and orchestra

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Band Student

A Band Director’s Guide to Choosing Concert Repertoire

Veteran educators share important and practical considerations for music selection. No two band programs are alike, and there’s no one-size-fits-all formula for choosing music. Yet there are certain overarching topics and themes that steer those decisions and build a foundation for brilliant student performances. In this primer, experienced band directors from across the country, spanning […]

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PRISM Quartet’s Matthew Levy

PRISM Quartet’s Matthew Levy: Profiles in Education

Credit: Willa Rohrer. The director of the groundbreaking saxophone ensemble reflects on the teachers who changed his life, his own career as an educator, his Selmer horns and more. Matthew Levy didn’t pick up the saxophone with the intention of pursuing a career in classical music. Growing up in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Levy […]

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Bobby Sanabria

Bobby Sanabria’s Secrets of the Clave

One of Latin jazz’s greatest bandleaders offers tips for unlocking the foundation of Afro-Caribbean music. Many musicians who play “Latin jazz” or other styles born out of the Afro-Caribbean/Latin American experience grew up with those styles and internalized their rhythms—particularly the core five-stroke pattern known as the clave. They didn’t just learn the music, they […]

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Inspiring Artist Interviews

PRISM Quartet’s Matthew Levy

PRISM Quartet’s Matthew Levy: Profiles in Education

Credit: Willa Rohrer. The director of the groundbreaking saxophone ensemble reflects on the teachers who changed his life, his own career as an educator, his Selmer horns and more. Matthew Levy didn’t pick up the saxophone with the intention of pursuing a career in classical music. Growing up in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Levy […]

Learn More
Bobby Sanabria

Bobby Sanabria’s Secrets of the Clave

One of Latin jazz’s greatest bandleaders offers tips for unlocking the foundation of Afro-Caribbean music. Many musicians who play “Latin jazz” or other styles born out of the Afro-Caribbean/Latin American experience grew up with those styles and internalized their rhythms—particularly the core five-stroke pattern known as the clave. They didn’t just learn the music, they […]

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Tyler Grant Composer

Inspired by Inspiration: Tyler S. Grant’s ‘In Your Wildest Dreams’

The acclaimed composer talks about his new Project Imagine commission, available for free as an online download now through November 15. For many composers, the title of a work is often an afterthought. But in the case of Tyler S. Grant’s In Your Wildest Dreams, those four words led the way. “I knew I had […]

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Carli Kennedy

Carli Kennedy’s Singer-Songwriter Secrets

The Nashville-based Music & Arts instructor, who performs with her sister in the acclaimed classical-country duo Twin Kennedy, reveals her tricks of the songwriting trade. Carli Kennedy started crafting songs before many children have picked out an instrument. “I wrote my first song at 7,” she recalls, “and I’m sure it rhymed, but I’m also […]

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Doug Woolverton Trumpet Player

Doug Woolverton’s Modern Blues Mastery

One of contemporary blues’ premier horn players on transcribing guitarists, controlling his sound with effects pedals, and using open space like B.B. King. The first time that trumpeter Doug Woolverton played with guitarist Warren Haynes, at a gig by Haynes’ Southern jam band Gov’t Mule, he participated in a kind of trial by fire. Haynes, […]

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Band Student

A Band Director’s Guide to Choosing Concert Repertoire

Learn More
PRISM Quartet’s Matthew Levy

PRISM Quartet’s Matthew Levy: Profiles in Education

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Bobby Sanabria

Bobby Sanabria’s Secrets of the Clave

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Child Guitar Practice

How to Build the Perfect Practice Routine

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