Distinguished Teachers Series

Each year the Center for Music Learning hosts 3-5-day residencies by internationally recognized artist-teachers. The individuals selected as Distinguished Teachers represent the very finest musicians who have dedicated themselves to teaching music. The diversity of the Distinguished Teachers selected—performing artists, private teachers, public school teachers, college faculty—reflects the Center's working philosophy that there are common principles that underlie all music teaching and learning, irrespective of instrument, genre, culture, and age and experience of the learner. It is this set of common principles that the Distinguished Teacher Series serves to illuminate.

The public lectures, teaching demonstrations, performances, and discussion sessions that the Distinguished Teachers Series comprises bring together teachers, performers, and scholars from all levels of instruction in interdisciplinary sessions with leading artist-teachers. The design of each artist-teacher's residency includes a variety of large and small-group sessions that permit performers, scholars, teachers, and students from the University and the Austin community to participate in unique interactive activities.

Each Distinguished Teacher's residency includes (1) a public lecture about music teaching, (2) a "teaching master class," in which the guest artist observes and critiques the teaching of several of our students, (3) a public teaching demonstration, and (4) a public performance. The "teaching master class" and the teaching demonstration are videotaped and compiled in the Center's tape library from which the Center will produce the Master Teachers in Music CD-ROM series.

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Distinguished Teacher Honoree for 2007

RAYMOND CRISARA, one of the 20th century’s most influential trumpet performers and teachers, was born in Cortland, New York in 1920. During high school, he played trumpet in the Cortland Municipal Band conducted by his father, Frank. Following high school graduation, he attended the Ernest Williams School of Music in Brooklyn, New York, studying trumpet with Ernest Williams. He then matriculated at the University of Michigan as a student and a teaching assistant under William Revelli. He later became a soloist of the Goldman Band in New York and was appointed First Trumpet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Drafted in 1942, he was assigned to the special services orchestra in New York City that performed for films, records, VDiscs, symphony concerts and radio broadcasts. Returning to civilian life in 1946, Crisara decided not to continue at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, instead joining the staff orchestra of the National Broadcasting Company. A varied career at NBC included the position of Associate First Trumpet and Third Trumpet in the NBC Symphony under Arturo Toscanini and playing under virtually all of the notable conductors of that period. His career expanded to include all areas of the New York commercial and concert community.

Professor Crisara taught trumpet at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was elected to the Academy of Distinguished Teachers and held the Frank C. Erwin, Jr. Centennial Professorship. Upon retirement in 2001, he was named Professor Emeritus. Other recognitions include an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the State University of New York at Cortland, the Edwin Franko Goldman Citation of the American Bandmaste’s Association, and the Award of Merit of the International Trumpet Guild.

Having served the musical community as a performer and teacher for more than 55 years, Ray Crisara has influenced a great many people. Former student, Charles Decker, expressed what many of Professor Crisara's students know to be true: ". . . this quiet man humanized my outlook on the music profession and more importantly on life . . . . there are a handful of individuals who can ultimately shape our destiny over time. Ray Crisara is one of these special few.”

Residency Schedule 10-12 April 2007 , Public Presentations

Tuesday 10 April

5:00-7:00 PM MBE 2.106, Converstation with Ray Crisara

Thursday 12 April

1-2 PM Bates Recital Hall, MRH, SCHOOL OF MUSIC CONVOCATION

5:00-7:00 PM MBE 2.106, Trumpet Master Class

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Past Distinguished Teacher Honorees 2002-2006

Yehuda Gilad, Professor of Clarinet, University of Southern California
Residency: 6-9 February 2006

Weston Noble, Director of Music Activities, Luther College
Residency: 11-14 October 2005

Aldo Parisot, Professor of Cello, Yale University
Residency: 10-14 April 2005

Eliot Fisk, Professor of Guitar, Mozarteum, Salzburg, and New England Conservatory of Music
Residency: 23-27 February 2004

Donald McInnes, Professor of Viola, University of Southern California
Residency: 31 March - 2 April 2003

Richard Killmer, Professor of Oboe, Eastman School of Music and Yale University
Residency: 18-20 February 2003

Nelita True, Professor of Piano, Eastman School of Music
Residency: 25-27 September 2002