The chairperson of the Music in Our Schools Week discusses the importance of music in the school program. Music provides an opportunity for every child to be a performer, a creator, and a listener. Music teachers must take the lead in educating the public to recognize this. (CS)

The Piedmont Opera Company embarked on opera productions in two junior high schools, involving professional performers with students and faculty. School members sang in the chorus, danced, and acted in walk-on roles. Many departments besides music took part in the varied aspects of the production. (CS)

Japanese children get 10 years of mandatory music studies, resulting in a population which can read music and appreciate it. History, theory, conducting, instrumental and choral performance, and reading and writing of music are taught. Japanese educators often criticize the approach as emphasizing the intellectual rather than the creative. (CS)

Music is a fact of life in the educational system of Israel, from the kibbutzim to the public schools, from the conservatories to the army. Describes the program at the conservatories and at Tel-Aviv University. Musical experience is already a reality for all, but the extreme cultural diversity presents problems. (CS)

The Indian flute can be used by teachers to supplement classroom study of Indian culture. Indians used it as a personal instrument. Describes how an Indian flute can be made, and suggests improvising bird calls and melodies on it. (CS)

Reasons for attending a conference include renewing friendships, exhibiting performances, placing students, and continuing education. The conference is also a time to raise hard questions about music education such as the place of the nonperformer and what to do about the highly standardized repertoire. (CS)

Hosmer, dean emeritus of Crane School of Music, a department of the State University of Arts and Science at Potsdam, New York, discusses her life, her teaching experiences, changes in college students over the years, and the state of music education. (RM)

The report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education concluded with scant information about a need for fine arts in the schools. Outlined is an interdisciplinary course that uses many art forms--literature, opera, and symphonies--to prevent the extinction of music and art education. (RM)

The responsibility for helping students attain competence in music-reading skills must fall on choral directors and choral music teachers from middle schools on up. Teachers must teach rhythmic and tonal vocabularies and pitch accuracies. Methods are described. (RM)

Tips to help conductors improve school music rehearsals are provided. For example, students should learn that the minute the conductor steps on the podium, they should stop playing and talking and direct their attention to the podium. (RM)

Described is a "Composer in Residence" project in which a local choral songwriter participated in a semester-long music course for fourth and fifth graders. He visited the schools and composed an instrumental work which the students performed at a spring concert. (RM)

Through aesthetic education, students become sensitized to reason, beauty, and excellence as they relate to human feeling. Aesthetic education can be justified for everyone as a paradigm of education itself. The study of music is the most effective method of teaching aesthetic perception. (RM)

Paul Brodie, the most recorded concert saxophonist in the history of the instrument, talks about a number of topics, including his career, differences among saxophonists, mixing styles of playing, the effectiveness of music schools, and whether it is necessary to understand the structure of the piece being played. (RM)

The Modern Music Masters Society had its origins during the Great Depression in the Maine Music Masters, formed to honor high school students who performed at school and on local church and civic programs. Incorporated in 1952, the society today has chapters in all states and in foreign countries. (RM)

Because public school music teachers, particularly those involved with choral and instrumental ensembles, have the opportunity to develop a long-term relationship with their students, they can often help students solve difficult growing problems. Discussed are basic communication skills which a teacher can use in the teacher-student relationship.…