DeNardo, G.

Published in No. 185, Summer 2010

The occasional clustering of articles and essays in the Bulletin around a particular focus occurs by happenstance and a small dose of good fortune. Pre- and first-year music teaching is a theme that runs throughout articles about a pre-collegiate recruitment initiative (Peter Miksza and James Austin), supervising teachers' ratings of skills and behaviors necessary in the development of effective music teachers (Steven N. Kelly), reasons why instrumental music education students decide to teach general music (Mitchell Robinson), preparing string teachers for the varying realities of their initial teaching experiences (Gail V. Barnes), and kinesthetic analogues viewed as creativity for undergraduate music education students (Ed Duling). Interspersed among these articles, is a study that compared the different instructional strategies used by experienced band and string teachers when teaching a first year class (Rebecca MacLoed). This issue ends with an essay that offers a proposition for us to ponder: "Improve the quality of music teaching so that all students who come through our programs learn that they are musical and that music has value in their lives. People spend money on those things they value" (Kenneth H. Phillips).

Cultivation and encouragement of the next generation of music education researchers has been a goal of mine since assuming editorship of this journal. For those who keep track of rising stars in our profession, the name Peter Miksza is surely among the top of everyone's list. I am pleased to announce that Peter will be assuming the place on the Bulletin Advisory Committee vacated by the expired term of his advisor and mentor Charles P. Schmidt. In recognition of his distinguished service, recent completion of his Ph.D., and appointment as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, I have named Allen R. Legutki the Associate Editor of the Bulletin. Authors of recent work published in the Bulletin and I are grateful for the devotion to detail and clarity he demonstrated as an editorial assistant while completing his degree. Among his responsibilities will be coordinating the CRME Outstanding Dissertation Award, maintaining a web-based compilation of dissertations-in-progress, and special projects such as conference proceedings disseminated on-line.

Gregory DeNardo