#每周手账19：How music and education can shape our culture?

Dear Rose,

I've been thinking a lot about the new world. 

And I wish I have time to actually read a few books which can help in sharpening my vision and hope toward life. So after this pandemic, what's next? Since I am engaged with a few things at the moment, eg. thesis, teaching online classes, taking online classes, and sort of exploring new directions of this whole music career ... all I have is one screen. 

Gigs and plans keep getting canceled or postponed. Expectations can't be met. Many unpromising circumstances.

2020 was a game-changer for many; whereas 2021 does not seem to get better but I hope it is slightly more bearable as people have learned to become more adaptive for the long run. 

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I found this conversation between jazz trumpeter and educator Wynton Marsalis and pianist Lara Downes about what music can do for us in this new world:

You play for improvement = self-improvement >> group improvement >> audience >> culture you live in

You have to fight for the dream and vision of the world that you have, and make that the reality. 

It's a battle, it's not about putting a smile on something. You got to plant that flag on the cliff. 

Friction => electricity/chemistry

The whole system is kind of a belief in civilization. 

We don't have music appreciation for our listeners but we are selling them our products. We don't have music education by large. 

Governmental understanding of investing in civil. We are not a country of arts, we are now a country of the commercial. 

We're connected to a popularism that doesn't have a spiritual component. 

Compared to in the 60s, Martin Luther King and many educated people. 

We musicians, we just play. 

There are some songs like a quiet storm. 

You need to have some dissonance to create the resolution. 

A lot of gratitude for the ancestors.

Peace, 

Wei