Obscure Magazine
Promoting Maine's Original Musicians & Songwriters
WISHING A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR TO ALL!
Vol. 1 ISSUE 06
JAN. 1994 FREE!
INTERVIEW
Isi Rudnick
UMA INSTRUCTOR
*by Douglas Papa
Q
You attended college in Nevada, the University of North Texas State and
then taught in the country of Poland from about 1988 to 1991, is there
anything else you would like to add to this?
Isi: I
only went for a year at the University of Nevada. It didn't have the
depth that I felt I needed. I choose to go to the University of North
Texas where I got my bachelor's and master's degrees.
Q What was it like when you were teaching in Poland?
Isi:
My teaching experience in Poland was a wonderful opportunity for me.
The students there were incredibly enthusiastic and very anxious to
learn about American Jazz. I was involved in one of their high schools
and colleges in Krakow. Five years ago, jazz had not been allowed in
any of the academic courses. When things started to open up over there I
went in and had meetings with a lot of teachers. They asked how they
would go about teaching jazz, they had no idea where to begin. They
wanted to know what jazz courses would be beneficial at the junior high,
high school, and college levels. Obviously you can't get too technical
at the junior high level. The emphasis was to start a jazz ensemble,
it didn't have to be a big band, but it could be a small combo. In the
high school group we started a jazz improvisation class, which was
important since they had never experienced it before. While they were
technically proficient on their instruments and all of their students
had a good deal of ear training and sight seeing instruction; they had
never been allowed to do a lot of improvisation. That course was very
beneficial at the high school and college levels.
The college
students were particularly interested in the jazz arranging, voicing,
and voice leading. Learning how to score out passages from the
saxophone section and the brass section. They really didn't have access
to jazz arranging texts per se, you know written in Polish and
specifically geared towards their needs. Books from the West, the U.S.
and Europe were hard to get until a few years ago and probably cost
prohibited.
So it was a very
exciting time for me, not only musically but culturally as well. The
time I spent in Poland was intermittent. I would go there for about
seven to eight months (from 1988 to 1991) to teach, then return to the
United States. I was there for the first time when the Communists were
still in power and I was able to see the system change, witnessing first
hand the elections there. Since I did learn to speak Polish and my
contacts were with the Polish people rather than the Americans who were
visiting there, I really got a sense of what was going on and did
understand to some extent the historic changes that were taking place.
The students were
dedicated and devoted to learn about American jazz, that was their
passion. It carried over into other things as well, not just music.
They were pretty much interested in anything American.
Q
What would you say is the difference between teaching college students
here as opposed to teaching the Polish students in Europe?
Isi:
Well, the college students here have more material available to them.
They have more opportunities to hear really good live jazz, and they
have access to better facilities. I think the college students in
Poland have a better background in the fundamentals of music theory, ear
training. That is because they start those classes at the age of seven
or eight in the elementary schools. A student that's interested in
playing an instrument is usually sent to a school where there is a focus
on music. Learning at such an early age makes teaching a lot easier
because they have a good foundation. There are few students in the U.S.
who go to performing arts schools or take really intensive private
lessons who are on that level. But generally, the students I taught in
Poland seem to be a little more advanced in that level going in. On the
other hand the colleges and universities here are much more advanced in
jazz music. Eastern Europe is more advanced in classical music. The
students who have the capabilities both financially and have the
contacts do come to the U.S. to study. College kids in Europe have more
background training, while in the U.S. they have to make up that ground
time in college.
Q Since they have all of this background how easy was it to teach the Polish students?
Isi:
That's a good question. I would teach my smaller ensembles without
music because their ear training was so good. All I would have to do is
to play a melodic line a few times, and memorized. Their transposition
skills along with their memorization skills were fantastic, so they
were very easy to teach in this area. Jazz arranging was a little more
difficult because of the lack of material available there, I had to take
all of that material over there with me. I found that their experience
in sight reading skills in the area of jazz were much weaker than the
same caliber of students here, so it was kind of a trade off.
Q
Do you think students should set their goals beyond getting a B.A. in
music as far as landing a job with higher pay?
Isi:
Today you almost have to go to a graduate school. You must remember
that a bachelor's degree is just a general study. Nothing specific,
just some of the components you are going to need to make a career in
music. Since the competition is incredibly fierce for all teaching
jobs, graduate school is an absolute must for people who are really
serious about a music career. If you want to teach at the college
level, then a doctorate is really becoming a standard now. I think what
we need to do here is to get away from the idea; "I'll go for four
years and learn everything I need to know about music." That's not the
way it works. the study of music is a life long pursuit, just as you
think that you have something down, you realize that there is so much
more to accomplish. So, educating yourself should not be a short tem
goal. A graduate with a B.A. certainly doesn't qualify you as an
authority on music. It gives you a general background and should
inspire you to continue your studies and go on. *
* Since this interview
was conducted Isi Rudnick has planned to take some students of U.M.A. on
a 14 day tour to Eastern Europe. his purpose is to expose these
student's to Poland at its unaltered state, he fells that in about 10
years it will be more westernized. the students will also teach
American jazz to their European counterparts.