This morning I took my students to an open rehearsal of my former strategic planning client New Century Chamber Orchestra at Herbst Theater in San Francisco. This was a surprise excursion for the students on their last day of class.
The students loved it! I prepped them by showing videos of NCCO and Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, the inspirational music director. Prior to the rehearsal I asked the students to notice the shared leadership style of the orchestra. Afterwards we talked about the different leadership and communications styles of the players. I was so impressed with the students' observations.
What also blew me away was that during the rehearsal my students were totally engaged. In the classroom there are so many distractions like texting and facebooking. In the rehearsal they sat forward, hands on knees, eyes and ears focused on the musicians.
One student said she had never been to "anything like that before". And when I asked if she meant an open rehearsal, she said, "no, a classical music performance." Another said that she really appreciates when Instructors engage the class in cultural experiences.
Last week I took them to the Opera, this week classical music, next quarter I'm striving for dance and visual arts!
