At the Russian Academy of Music, teaching is a wonderful mean to a desired end; we can hardly imagine anything more important or more rewarding than the fact to contribute not only to the education of the next generation but to its spiritual, intellectual and emotional development as well.
We believe that by awakening love of music, we create compelling reasons for the individuals to be sensitive, attentive, alert, inspired, to develop their intellectual abilities, research, learn, create and contribute something unique to this world..
It is our privilege and responsibility as music teachers not only to educate the musician, but the entire student’s personality, aiding them in developing good habits in the music classroom that can transfer to all aspects of their lives.
Our goal is to develop a sense of wonder and respect for music, to introduce students to the world of beauty that will encourage deep thinking and desire for spiritual growth later on. It is vital that students leave class not only with the ability to read music, but to appreciate it, have vivid images of the music and be able to listen to it analytically. To understand and feel the musical content, the depth of thoughts the composer shared, its shape and style and, eventually, connect with it on a heart level and use music to express.
We truly believe everyone is talented. We feel eager to search for different ways to discover people’s talent. We believe some students need much more carefully scaffolded instruction than we used to consider appropriate. As a teachers-researchers, we love the challenge of building success for each individual learner. We are constantly learning and open to new insights from educational research and our wise teaching colleagues.
It is important to help students relate music, and musical concepts, to their daily lives, giving them some tangible connection to what is important to them. Understanding the individual peculiarities, finding a special approach to each one of them, inspiring them while teaching to be disciplined, not only reinforces their musicianship, but teaches them responsibility and preparedness which can help them be more effective in all arenas of their lives.
Our high expectations for our student’s literacy development, thinking skills, and love of learning, keep us challenged and reflective.
In addition to teaching musical subject matter, we consider important that students experience musical expression through performance. The chance to stand and play what they have worked on for the sake of sharing the love for the music, the beauty of it and their own attitude to the music, will allow students to connect with their inner side, with their emotions, it will help them to find another way to express themselves and gain a sense of being an artist, creator, who communicates through the instrument.
We believe that each people has unique strengths, varied from prior learning experiences, and preferred learning styles. Our instruction must be differentiated to provide enough challenge and support to build on success and to develop positive attitudes about learning.
We believe that emotional engagement is the key to all powerful learning. That is why we bring love, laughter, passion, and meaningful project work into our lessons. We always look for ways to personalize learning and engage students’ imagination.