EDUCATION: During the traditional school years, my most influential teacher was Walter Rodby, my high school choral conductor. There were about ten of us, as high school juniors, who were obnoxious -- many year (...)

Who was your most influential teacher and why?

Whohub

During the traditional school years, my most influential teacher was Walter Rodby, my high school choral conductor. There were about ten of us, as high school juniors, who were obnoxious -- many years of piano study, beginning voice students, interested in all the performing arts -- and looking for trouble. He suggested we form a music club, shoose our own programs, rehearse them, and then present them as a regular concert series during the school year in the Choral Rehearsal Hall. To use Clay Shirkey's contemporary term, Mr. Rodby was able to leverage our "cognitive surplus" so that we were out of his hair and able to be cooperative leaders, rather than just obnoxious underminers. We independently prepared sophisticated ensemble works, vocal solos, instrumental sonatas, newly composed pieces, and "performance art" for five months a year over two years. We were not paid; we were all volunteers who just loved making music together. I learned so much from that process! He was courageous enough to get out of the way of his accelerated students -- to turn us loose, with guidelines, and see what we could create. We got to feel justly proud of an accomplishment that was truly ours.