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Music is my passion. Not a moment goes by that it is not on my mind. Through practice, I strive to push myself to greater freedom of musical expression. I am in constant struggle to free myself from technique, so that I can play whatever comes my way with all my focus on the music and never on my physical body.
As a teacher, I dream that my students will be able to perform music without technique getting in their way. This requires a level of dedication rare in today's busy world. With countless distractions sucking away our lives, long term payoffs are often forgotten or cast aside by short term instant gratifications. The great musicians of the past had little to do other than to practice and perform. Many of them hit their mark at a very young age, an age before most of us even thought music was a possibility. Spending even ten minutes practicing is beyond the span of most young musicians' imaginations. So, I dream that we can create something different. We can inspire each other to practice, we can feel the power of music together, and we can raise the level of expectation within our music rehearsals.
Music is not written on a page. Composers only provide us a guide to help us understand what they want. Music only lives in time. It is an expression of humanity. From the moment we are within our mothers, we respond to music. If music is vibration, we are music. Even space creates a Bb many octaves below human hearing. Let's make music. Practice, not just to get it, but to completely understand it.
You may have noticed that my dream does not include classroom management. Simply put, my dream is that the only choice in class is to create the most expressive music that we can. Within that dream, there is no time to waste. Everyone is ready. Everyone is prepared. Everyone is on time. Everyone is focused on the music. You are ready. You are prepared. You are on time. You are focused on making music.
Radtke
