A Special Hello from the Editors Meet the Editors

Meet the Editors

Julia Brooks

Hello, my name is Julia Brooks, and I’m an editor for Musical Marvels and a student at LASA. While making this magazine, I learned and wrote about the effects that musical education has on students and teachers. I have a personal connection to this topic because I have played the piano since an early age, and I plan to continue learning it. Music has a tremendous impact on my life, and I had a great time interacting with various other music students and teachers, so I hope you enjoy this magazine!

Hey there! My name is Chanell Waller, and I’m a freshman at LASA. I really enjoy making art, specifically portraits and animated characters, and I hope to continue with it. My enthusiasm for art inspired all of my designs in this magazine. As an editor in Musical Marvels, I wrote about the role of music in church. I interviewed a number of church musicians, and I learned about their experiences with music. As you read this magazine, I hope you get to explore the world of music in churches!

Ailia Zhao

Hey, I’m Ailia Zhao, a LASA student and editor of Musical Marvels. I have a deep interest in anatomy and biology, and I hope to pursue a career in the medical field. In our magazine, I focused on live music in Austin, specifically on the Austin City Limits Festival. I’ve played the piano and viola, and have danced ever since I was a child, so music has always been a big part of my life. This magazine was extremely fun to create, and I hope you enjoy it! Happy reading!

Piper Chen

Hi! I’m Piper Chen and a student at LASA. I have always had a love for math, especially geometry. I hope to pursue a career in architecture so I can continue to explore this field of math. Acting has also been a creative outlet for me since elementary school, and I wish to continue acting on the side. In Musical Marvels, I served as an editor and focused on the topic of music in film, especially its history and behind-the-screens production. Thank you for reading our magazine!

Catherine Davis plays the piano alongside backup dancers. Their performance is site-specific to the Blanton Museum of Art. Photo courtesy of Tanner Edelmann.

Tuneful Teaching

How has musical education affected students and teachers?

By Julia Brooks, editor

hroughout the city of Austin, music bears a tremendous impact on daily life, but there would be no music to listen to if there weren’t any teachers to teach or students to learn, according to Cristal Martínez Pérez, a music student with a unique beginning to her journey.

“[Learning music] wasn’t really my choice, since I was so young,” Martínez Pérez said. “My parents introduced it to me, but afterwards, just seeing my professors… other people my age playing inspired me the most [to] keep playing.”

While musical education is scattered and various throughout Texas, it all comes together in the capital city, where opportunities abound. In Austin, students can learn virtually any instrument they wish to, and they can share their passion easily with others.

Martínez Pérez, who is learning the violin at Texas State University, understands just how important music is in her life. However, as a child, it was more of a chore than a pleasure.

“I just saw it as another extracurricular that I was doing and something that my parents were driving me to do every week,” Martínez Pérez said. “At that moment, I don’t think I thought it was that important, but as I kept playing and as I kept meeting more musicians and learning new music, it gained importance, and now, it’s probably the most important thing to me.”

Martínez Pérez started learning music in the Texas State Youth Mariachi during third grade, and now, she understands the many different aspects of learning music that make the experience so valuable to her.

“I liked… finding a new piece and listening to it for the first time and finding so much excitement and wanting to learn that piece and wanting to be able to reach that level of playing,” Martínez Pérez said.

This love of music is shared by Max Henry, a private piano student

and a senior at McCallum High School studying guitar and percussion. Henry plans to study music composition in college and pursue a career in it, a decision that was heavily influenced by members of his family.

“My dad plays a lot of music, and so does my uncle, so I’ve just been around it a lot,” Henry said. “I grew up with that as a part of my life, and now, it seems absurd for me to do anything without it.”

Like Henry, Martínez Pérez found herself so infatuated with music that she decided to pursue a job in it. Her parents, who are both educators, motivated her to chase her dreams of becoming a violin teacher.

“I think education is probably the most important thing,” Martínez Pérez said. “Seeing them in their jobs inspired me to want to do that.”

A private piano and choral teacher at capital music center, Catherine Davis, was also inspired by her family to learn music. Davis said that growing up, music was very important in her household, and she found her love for the piano by watching her mother and sister play it.

“I was super inspired by music when I was probably 10 and 11,” Davis said. “When I got to middle school, I started taking violin lessons and doing choir, and I think having all three instruments… [as] more social things at that age really took practicing away from me.”

During middle school, Davis struggled with her motivation to continue learning music. She nearly was forced to quit music entirely, but things turned around in the end.

“I didn’t like to practice very much,” Davis said, “but my mom convinced [my teacher] to keep me going, and thank the Lord she did because my life would’ve been pretty different if that had been the case.”

Motivation is a common struggle amongst music students. Martínez Pérez’s high school years were especially troubling because of the structure of her orchestra class.

“Everything was so competitive, that made me want to stop playing, or just stop being in the class and stop auditioning for things,” Martínez Pérez explained. “My private lessons just didn’t seem like something I was lacked motivation-especially during Covid when there was no performing at all,” Henry said. “It was hard for me to rationalize practicing because I thought ‘What am I practicing for?’ That got me thinking about more personal reasons for practicing music and playing songs.”

Davis, who also teaches Henry

“It’s for art therapy, for artistic expression, for their own enjoyment, [and] to see their self-confidence blossom.”

- Andrew Clark, classical guitar teacher

enjoying anymore, but after I stopped seeing my peers and seeing my classmates as competition, I started working on self-improvement instead of how other musicians might see me.”

Like Martínez Pérez, Henry experienced struggles because his practice lacked a sense of community. This specifically rang true during the pandemic, when Henry found himself with no audience to perform for.

“I’ve definitely had bouts where I piano, loves to watch this growth in her students. Being a part of this experience is a great honor for her.

“It’s about watching them find this ‘proud as punch’ moment where they just feel good,” Davis said. “Holding onto that aspect of ‘hard work equals feeling good’ is the best part.”

Davis believes that these moments are important for the lives and esteems of music students. She also explained that finding a piece to help them

Capital Music Center sells drums and pianos from the Roland Corporation. These instruments are designed to help beginners learn music. Photo courtesy of Tanner Edelmann.

express themselves can have other benefits, especially during troubling times.

Andrew Clark, a classical guitar teacher at McCallum High School, finds it important to instill the same

“It’s about watching [students] find this

‘proud as punch’ moment where they just feel good... Holding onto that aspect of ‘hard work equals feeling good is the best part.”

- Catherine Davis, private piano teacher

“I’ve seen… teenagers going through a lot of stressful times, especially during Covid, finding music and learning different things and being so proud of themselves,” Davis explained. “When you’ve accomplished a piece that you’ve really worked hard on and played really well, it makes you feel so good.” message in his students.

“The joy in your journey with the instrument is more important than any competition or trying to be ‘the best,’” Clark said.

Clark, who started his music career when he took up learning piano as a child, developed an interest in the guitar after hearing professionals like Julian Bream and Andres Segovia

Andrew Clark directs his class in a performance. The performers are students of classical guitar at McCallum High School. Photo courtesy of McCallum High School. play. He then decided to drop his piano classes and follow his passion.

“[Piano] was just something my parents made me do once a week, and that was really a chore,” Clark said. “Eventually, I just fell in love with the classical guitar, and then that took over.”

Henry had a similar situation when he first started learning the piano. By the time he got into middle school, the instrument was just a “school activity” to him, and he wanted to pursue a different path in music.

“I wanted to learn a different instrument-a different instrument to be my instrument,” Henry said.

When he reached 8th grade, Henry had an empty elective spot. Not fully sure of what to do, he settled on taking guitar.

“I kept doing it because I loved it so much,” Henry said. “I got really serious about it, and it’s just been a huge outlet… since then.”

Clark also enjoyed expressing himself with the guitar as a student. Now, as a teacher, he’s noticed many of his students follow the same path.

“It’s for art therapy, for artistic expression, for their own enjoyment, [and] to see their self-confidence blossom,” Clark explains. “I think that it takes discipline and commitment and that spills over to other areas.”

After graduating college and taking a break from music, Davis noticed that she was missing these benefits. Being in a world without music was something that made her very unhappy.

“I decided that I would just try some sales jobs and do something without music, and I quickly realized that doing a job that didn’t have music in it was not good for me,” Davis explained. “Working in a cube or feeling like I was doing something that didn’t quite matter to me or make a dent in the universe in the way I wanted to just wasn’t how I wanted to be.”

Symphony orchestra and combined choir students of the Butler School of Music perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125. The performers are directed by are directed by Farkhad Khudyey. Photo by Julia Brooks.

Davis knew that she needed to connect herself back to her passions, so she looked into opportunities that would help her become more involved in music. She said that to be involved with music, you need to have your hands in many different aspects of it.

“When I started taking a couple of students in addition to the sales job, as well as playing in bands and doing all sorts of gigs, I felt rejuvenation and then decided I was going to go really headstrong into…teaching again,” Davis said.

Davis now enjoys teaching fulltime, as well as composing and performing her own songs. She explained that one of the plus sides to private teaching is the control she has over her hours and income, but the biggest benefit are the relationships that she’s built with each student.

“I have had students that, privately, I’ve taught from when they were 6 or 7 until they graduated high school, and it is a very long mentor-mentee relationship,” Davis explains. “It is really such an honor to be a part of everybody’s life in such a way, [and] you get to develop really wonderful friendships.”

Her students, she said, are a great source of inspiration for her, and they have made all the effort of being a teacher worthwhile. James Buhler, a music theory, form, and analysis teacher at the Butler School of Music, also enjoys connecting with his students.

“It’s always great interacting with students and really feeling like you are able to get the students to think in new ways,” Buhler said. “I think that’s one of the best things about the college experience.”

Introducing new ideas to his students and watching the learning curve’s effect on them is one of Buhler’s favorite parts of being a teacher.

“You’re getting them to think more complex thoughts and having to put them together,” Buhler said. “It’s just really fascinating to see… yourself

having an effect on students and their learning.”

Like Davis, Buhler puts a lot of value into the bonds he shares with his students, and he admires their ambition and passion to learn music. To Buhler, these devoted student and teacher musicians create a sense of community that’s hard to replace.

“Having a group of people who are interested in something that can seem, to other people, a little bit esoteric… is really something that is quite interesting,” Buhler said. “They’re just great students [who are] very, very interested and have this passion for the music that you can really work with, and [you can] get them to engage in really interesting ways.”

Buhler, however, doesn’t have a passion for mastering a particular instrument. Instead, he enjoys the intellectual side of music which lets him think about the various elements of a song and how they’re put together.

“I like the music theory task, which is a strange discipline,” Buhler said. “You’re like a language teacher: it’s rudimentary that you’re teaching students how all of this stuff works.”

It was during high school that Buhler realized that he didn’t want to perform music for a living. During his ensemble classes, he discovered that he wanted to master the fundamentals of music structure and theory.

“You’re sitting there a lot in rehearsals and whatnot, not doing much, so you’re either bored at that

Andrew Clark directs classical guitarists in a performance. The performers are students at McCallum High School. Photo courtesy of McCallum High School.

level, or you start to listen to what everybody else is doing, which is what started happening with me,” Buhler explained. “It was from that experience of listening within the band and orchestra that I started to hear how the music was working and got drawn into ‘How does all this stuff work?’”

Buhler was also interested in music composition but struggled to create all of the components in a song. To solve this problem, he taught himself how to use virtual instruments, such as synthesizers.

“I had that experience with technology there… and that got me back into composing,” Buhler said. “I found that I really enjoy that aspect of it, so it’s become a real kind of rich hobby.”

For students like Marínez Pérez or teachers like Catherine Davis, music is not just a hobby but an everyday force that brings people together. Whether it’s in classrooms, during celebrations, or just during time spent alone, music has a powerful impact that inspires and brings joy.

“Music is part of every culture, and it’s important in almost every aspect of it,” Martínez Pérez said. “It’s about sharing with others and enjoying the music as it is.”