Shenae attended GMS as a student for six years, from the time she was 11 through high school, studying with Eugene Watanabe. The idea of GMS is to form an integrated pathway of musical education, from preschool through high school graduation. April Clayton replaced Eugene as Artistic Director of the school, allowing Eugene to commit more time to teaching and board activities on behalf of the school. 'I think that was the greatest eye-opening experience, to understand this difference in our education systems.'īy now the school they founded - Gifted Music School (GMS) in Salt Lake City - has hundreds of pre-college students in three main programs: a Preparatory program that includes beginners and Suzuki a full-scholarship outreach program in several public elementary schools called Project GRIT (Growth, Resilience, Instinct, Tenacity) and a Conservatory program - an advanced program into which both Preparatory and GRIT students can metriculate. You need someone to teach you, and that needs to involve some kind of system,' Watanabe said. 'Certain students who are extremely gifted may reach that proficiency, with or without some kind of system, but for the vast majority, that doesn't come naturally. Certainly, Eugene did not come to college with the level of training that Vera had. (apart from a few choice institutions around the country) for learning this knowledge and these skills. That student is only expected to get good enough to pass a certain bar.īefore college, there is no consistent system in the U.S. And let's be honest: a student who begins music dictation and theory analysis as an undergraduate is not really expected to achieve true proficiency or mastery in those skills. An American-trained musician might not study theory and music dictation for the first time until college. In the United States, it's completely different, Watanabe said. 'Vera could listen to an exposition of a classical sonata or a Prokofiev Sonata - and with a number of hearings, she could get it all.' Their ear for dictation was incredibly well-refined. 'The musicians that are trained in that system - there's a very different learning, because they learn it as a language,' Watanabe said. There were public school children learning the basics at an after-school outreach program advanced young musicians playing chamber music and preparing for performances and kids in theory and ear training classes of all levels.Īnd it wasn't just Vera he found this to be the case in other musicians with Russian training - because of their early system of education, they possessed an entirely different level of proficiency, like the fluency of a native speaker. I saw kids taking private lessons participating in Suzuki group classes playing in beginning orchestras. It wasn't to teach 'gifted students' - it was to provide that gift for as many children as they could.Įarlier this year, I went to Utah and visited the Gifted Music School. That is one of the reasons why Eugene and Vera Watanabe founded the Gifted Music School in 2009, in Eugene's native Salt Lake City, Utah. simply don't get that - even the ones studying an instrument or fortunate enough to have some music education at their schools. It takes a serious musical education to turn a child's basic interest into the true gift of musical fluency as an adult.Laurie Niles The Gifted Music School in Utah: Prioritizing Every Child’s Inherent Gift

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