Putting Down Roots: Making Music and Embracing Messiness in Graduate School
The Handbook on Music Business and Creative Industries in Education - Daniel Walzer
Taylor Ackley
SUNY, Stony Brook (PhD candidate)
Joe Sferra [+]
SUNY, Potsdam
Description
Taylor Ackley and Joe Sferra describe the Deep Roots Ensemble, a student-run mixed chamber group drawing musical inspiration from American folk and roots music, jazz, and classical styles. Written primarily as an autoethnography undertaken by the two authors, the chapter explores aspects of the complicated history of American music, institutional politics in higher education, and how an inclusive pedagogical style inspires deeper and more meaningful connections to ensemble performance, creativity, and professionalism. Along with interviews with former students, Ackley and Sferra challenge the hegemonic and limiting structures commonly found in academic music departments. The chapter concludes with a clarion call for how educators might adopt a similar ethos in their ensemble pedagogy.