Channel: Joe Raciti

Category: Education

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Description: Millbrook School: millbrook.org People sometimes ask me if I can be their actual piano teacher. The answer is maybe. Video Narration As Text: People sometimes ask me if I can be their actual piano teacher. I currently teach music at an independent boarding and day school in a beautiful part of New York State, about an hour and a half north of New York City. In other words, it is possible to study music with me in person. Most people don’t know that so I decided to make this video and briefly introduce you to the incredible Millbrook School, the place where I teach music in person. We’re an intentionally small school - about 320 students. The size is designed to ensure that every student is, as we say, "known and needed". We have our own garden, where we grow produce that is served next door in our new dining hall, and we have a solar field that plays an important role in our ability to be carbon neutral. We’re also the only high school in America with an AZA-accredited zoo! We’re almost more like a college than a high school in a lot of ways. The admissions process is competitive and the boarding program means that students live together on campus with bright and talented students from all over the world. We’re not an arts-only school -- we offer a liberal arts curriculum -- but we do graduate a number of students every year to arts-focused college programs. At Millbrook, we offer a range of music classes that cover songwriting, recording, music theory, performance, history, and more. I teach many of these classes and I also teach piano as one of the instructors in our robust private lessons program. We regularly bring in high-profile guest artists who work with our students and musically enrich our campus. Recent guest artists include YouTube sensations Nahre Sol and Adam Neely, and acapella groups from Yale and the Berklee School of Music. I work with our vocal groups and direct Millbrook Singers, our select acapella group. That group performs regularly both on and off-campus, including at high-profile events in New York City. Every year we host an acapella competition called Golden Lips, which attracts groups from nearby schools to compete in front of a live audience and an expert judging panel. Because we are so close to New York City, we regularly make our way to Broadway to catch a musical or other live music performance. As for the music spaces, we have a collection of recently updated practice rooms, each with their own music staff whiteboard, circle of fifths clocks, and student artwork. These practice rooms are where many of our student teachers fulfill their community service obligation, teaching music to young students from nearby towns. Our theater is an incredibly engaging space that features an immersive stage that is exciting to perform on. Four times per year, we host arts nights in this space, where students perform music, improv comedy, dance, and more. I am also the music director for our winter musical so I get to work in the theater a lot. In the spring, I run an afterschool music program that organizes students into a number of bands that learn music together and perform for our outdoor spring carnival event every year. As you can probably tell, we maintain an ambitious year-long music program. I’ll leave links to the school website in the description field of this video in case you are curious to learn more about Millbrook. I really only just scraped the surface, believe it or not. And if you happen to be one of the lucky few who is considering Millbrook, and you find yourself touring the school one day, let the admissions team know that I sent you and I’m sure they will find a way to connect us as part of your tour. Well, that’s it. Now you know where I work for real. I hope that helps to answer some of the questions that I get about studying music with me in person. Hope to see you soon!