The Teacher, Through the Eyes of the Student - February 26th, 2011

A week before this was recorded my friend from Longy, Sachiko Murata and I, were asked to perform at the opening ceremony for the exhibit “From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace: Transforming the Human Spirit” at MIT. Berklee Alum, Emi Inaba, composed a piece for the event and we began practicing. Our schedules made rehearsals difficult and the only time we could find to practice before our first smaller public performance of the new pieces was Saturday at 8 a.m. before my teaching internship at the YMCA in Chinatown. We rehearsed until 9 and I decided to take advantage of the rare opportunity by asking Jason to record us playing the piece. It was a wonderful opportunity to see myself through the students eyes and ears as a performer. It also sparked dialogue about how much I practice. Jason was very surprised when I told him that I was practicing four hours every day. He left that day inquiring to himself and his family, “What would it be like to practice four hours a day?”