Episode 66 Bellis Music Camp

Welcome to a special edition of the School of Thought Podcast! Conducted during one of the days of the Bellis Music Camp, each director gave up part of their free time to answer a series of questions about how they lead, communicate, and educate their band students.

The Bellis Music Camp is a prestigious, weeklong summer camp for middle school musicians that takes place in the hills above Los Angeles. Middle school musicians get to work on with highly rated conductors and put on a concert at the end of the week.

Today features our conversations with three of the elite conductors leading the student ensembles at the camp this year. They are Richard Meyer, Jack Taylor, and Ria Kubota.

Richard Meyer has been a part of the music education community for over 40 years as a public school orchestra and band director in both Pasadena and Temple City, California,  a composer of over 200 published works, and a guest conductor of student honor groups and clinician for music teachers in 30 states and abroad." 

Jack Taylor has been a music teacher for over 25 years. He is current the orchestra director at Oak Avenue Intermediate School. He has directed the Pasadena Youth Symphony for over 16 years. He has conducted ensembles across the world, including Austria, Germany, Costa Rica, and Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Ria Kubota is a middle school orchestra teacher, presenter, mentor, and mom who has shared her love for making a difference with music over 20 years at a few schools in the San Gabriel Valley including in Monrovia, Pasadena, and currently Glendora where she lives with her husband and two daughters. Ria teaches her students the value of listening...to music, to each other, and to make room in the verbal and musical conversations for those whose voices are the quietest.

Episode Links

Bellis Music Camp Website: https://www.bellismusiccamp.com

Richard Meyer: https://www.alfred.com/authors/richard-meyer/

Giving Bach: https://www.givingbach.org/