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Madland
founds UNM-LA concert series
By Samantha
Beres
Music
Professor Juanita Madland can often be seen walking across the
courtyard of UNM-Los Alamos with her overflowing work bag that
looks like it weighs about 20 pounds. She probably couldnt
survive without it.
Inside is
a date book filled to the max with piano lesson appointments,
music classes and performances. Then, there are music history
books, CDs and music pieces for her students.
A pianist
and world-renowned performer, she is as passionate about teaching
as she is about playing. It is totally fascinating for me
to see how music can transform a person, Madland says. Playing
the piano is very holistic; it affects your whole body. I think
this is why I have watched students go through wonderful personal
transformations after taking up the piano.
The whole
body approach is one that Madland takes in teaching the piano,
with a focus on the different ways people store memory. The
tactile touch of the keys is enjoyable, she says. A
child likes that feeling, but as you get older you cant
depend on it for everything. So, I prepare my students to use
all different ways to learn and remember. If one memory fails,
another memory should kick in.
It
is totally fascinating for me to see how music can transform
a person, Madland says. Playing the piano is
very holistic; it affects your whole body.
For instance
Madland will sometimes have students close their eyes and find different
notes on the piano to work with spacial memory. Other
times shell work with speed or loudness. These different ways
to obtain memories are based on the work of Howard Gardner,
a neurologist at Johns Hopkins.
Her teaching
philosophy has also been shaped by her mentor Evelyne Brancart,
under whom she studied while getting her masters in music at UNM
in 1989. Evelyne believed that performers have an obligation
to pass on what they know, and I agree with her.
When Madland
isnt working with the already-interested, in very subtle
ways she brings music to others lives. This past January
she started a Concert Series at UNM-LA to bring the public onto
campus for good music, and to raise funds for a grand piano.
She says,
A lot of times you get hooked on something and you dont
even know youre getting hooked on it. I try to get people
hooked on music. Ultimately, my goal with teaching is to try to
help people be happy.
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