Teaching Children!
I do not have a CD or a DVD for you this time! Rather, this is about an interesting book about a marvelous teacher of children. Her name was Dorothy DeLay, and she was born in 1917. She was a mentor to such great violinists as Yitzhak Perlman, Sarah Chang, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and Midori) whose own beginnings and development the book also describes.
Readers learn about the many Asian families from Korea, Japan, and China who were absolutely intent to have their young children study with Ms. DeLay. We learn about the inner workings of the Julliard Pre-College program and abut the Julliard College program. We get a much clearer understanding of the artist Manager and his/her role in the artist’s ultimate success.
The book’s author, Barbara Sand, had long term access to interview sessions with Ms. DeLay where many of views of this amazing teacher were recorded on tape. For me, reading this book was an enjoyable and fascinating experience.
Here is a more detailed book review:
Nancy Robinson, the writer of this book review, tells us that this book “… provides us a picture of DeLay’s teaching style, distinguished from the styles of many of her colleagues in the extent to which — while never neglecting the more technical aspects of music — she empowers students through her positive regard and targeted problem-solving to find their own voices and musical insights…”
Dorothy DeLay died in New York City at the age of 84 on March 24, 2002
Here’s a video about 10 year old Sara Chang, who studied with Dorothy Delay. There are some brief comments by Ms. DeLay and also by Yehudi Menuhin: