Dr. Kevin Olson Article Pulished

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http://spokane.latterdaysentinel.com/archiveStory.asp?theArticle=479

Dr. Kevin Olson - a modern-day composer

By Gloria Warnick, Sentinel Staff Writer

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August 30, 2011 — On Friday, Aug. 19, Dr. Kevin Olson from Utah State University presented a workshop at Music City in Spokane. It was well attended by over 50 local piano teachers

Dr. Olson, a native of Utah, began composing at the age of 5. At 12, his composition," An American Trainride" received the Overall First Prize at the 1983 National PTA Convention at Albuquerque, New Mexico. Since then, he has been a Composer in Residence at the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy and has written music commissioned and performed by groups such as the American Piano Quartet, Chicago A Cappella, the Rich Matteson Jazz Festival and several piano teacher associations around the country.


Dr. Kevin Olson, a professor of music at Utah State and well-respected composer, taught a class earlier this month to over 50 piano instructors at Music City in Spokane. Contributed Photo.

Dr. Olson maintains a large piano studio, teaching students of various ages and abilities. Many of the experiences of his piano students have led to more than 100 books and solos published by the FJH Music Company, which he joined as a writer in 1994.

His wife, the former, Julia Aubery, is also a piano teacher. The couple has four children, ages 15,12, 8 and 5. An endearing story told by Dr. Olson to the capacity gathering of piano teachers earlier this month was of a day when Julia was teaching a piano lesson to a student using sheet music written by Dr. Olson. The student looked over the music and noticing Dr. Olson's picture on the back cover and said, "Hey, I just saw this guy mowing your lawn!"

As part of his presentation, Dr. Olson discussed how to teach music to the millennial generation, recognized as some of the brightest and best minds walking among us at this time.

They have grown up with computers, X-boxes and a host of other electronic tools at their disposal. Many of these toys have cheat sheets that allow them to "play" the game without risk.

However, real life has risks and there are consequences for actions, not to mention the fact that solid learning takes years. The question was asked, "How can we instill in our children musical values that will give them a sense of accomplishment not only now, but 50 years from now?"

Dr. Olson responded by saying, "The primary responsibility we have as music teachers is to instill a love of music making that will pass down the generations. This is done through finding points of motivation unique to each student that will provide the momentum to continue their musical training."

At the end of Dr. Olson's presentation, the message was clear - It was once enough that a music instructor was the teacher and the students adjusted their learning accordingly. Now, it is the responsibility of the teacher to find the direction that motivates a student and to fill in the information that the student requires. Music teachers like Dr. Olson are hoping students will be able to sit down at a piano and play music not only for themselves but hopefully, someday for their children and grandchildren who can appreciate the unique reward that only music provides.

Seeking and Questioning

There are so many voices in the news shouting such dreadful news these days that all I can do is ask questions.

For Instance: Is the politics of today making it so that we can conduct business in an honorable way for the mutual benefit of each other? Are we, as business people better off today?"

And I’m not just talking about the large corporations, I’m really interested in knowing if the little Mom and Pop stores, the businesses that may become our future, but right now are run by you, my neighbor. Are you flourishing? If so at what cost? Are you able to stay in business in an honorable way?

It’s kind of freaky to drive around town and see all of the empty store fronts and the signs for long time stores that are going out of business. Why is that?

When I was a kid the SAT score, the Scholastic Aptitude Test was everything. We knew who we were and what that meant for our lives. I confess I didn’t test as the sharpest tool in the shed. But I was in the shed.

There are a group of people sharper than me and a whole lot of people who aren’t. I’m not talking about bad; we have to get rid of this kind of person...Just a whole lot of people that didn’t get tools (minds) as sharp as someone else’s.

But, that was o.k. because we were all in this shed (the world) together. And we didn’t all need a college education to stock shelves and make sandwiches. But, we did need people to go to college and think and write as much as we needed people to make our sandwiches, and change our tires and stock the merchandise on the shelves.

Does this mean that there is anyone who has a life with less value? That somehow there are good hard working people who deserved to be subjected to failure, substandard food and clothing, and no health care just so someone else could have these things?

I’m getting older, and the older I get the more I don’t like the fact that my grandchildren are being born into debt. I don’t like to see good business people struggle and go out of business, while I’m being told it was their fault. Frankly, I don’t think it is. I think that their bottom line has become so thin that they don’t have the opportunity to apply good business practices or even offer health care for their employees? I mean really, if a person can’t afford health care how does fining them for not having health insurance make an sense?

Well, the only thing I can do is ask is questions. And that is what I am doing today. Write to me. Tell me: Is your life better today than it was 2 years ago? 3 years ago? 4 years ago? Do you have your dream life? Do you believe that you can have your dream life or is it a myth?

I can’t build a shed but I can ask questions.

Monday is Family Home Evening Night

If you are like me, you are always looking for a good recipe to end your family home evening with. At my house Monday night is always family night and here’s a great cookie recipe that my family loves.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

1 C butter flavored Crisco

1 C Creamy peanut butter

1 C sugar

1 C packed brown sugar

1 t vanilla

3 eggs

2 t baking soda

½ t salt

Additional white sugar for rolling

Filling

1 C creamy peanut butter

½ C real butter, softened

4 C powdered sugar

2 t vanilla

3-4 Tbs milk

Cookies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Cream shortening, peanut butter, and sugars together until light and fluffy 1-2 minutes. Add: vanilla and eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt and add to dough. Mix to combine. The dough will be very soft- that’s normal!

Roll dough into ½ inch (or a little larger) balls, roll in sugar, place on ungreased cookie sheet and do the little forky criss-cross thing.

Bake for 6-8 minutes or until puffed and set, but not browned. Remove from oven, let cool on baking sheet for 2

-3 minutes and then transfer to cooling rack.

Filling: Beat peanut butter, butter, sugar, and vanilla together until smooth, if needed add milk until desired consistency is reached. When cookies are completely cooled, spread a layer of frosting on one side and sandwich together. Yield: about 4 dozen sandwiches.

And don't forget, You can change this recipe to suit your taste. Just add chocolate chips to the batter or ice cream as a filler ...the possibilities are endless! yum!

Mom Wanted: Update

I want to update you about how contact with the East Coast relatives is going. Hearing from Cousin Lisa today, she sent me an e-mail that said: “We are all fine. Just gave us a good shake. Lol!”

I’m glad she responded….But, I still haven’t heard from my Mom yet. I gave up trying to call and finally sent her an e-mail but I doubt that she has even turned on her computer in the last 24 hours….She’s probably outside pulling weeds out of her massive garden and just hasn’t got around to it yet.

As you can tell, getting my mother to communicate with me has been an ongoing problem. She has so many children and grandchildren, brothers and sisters that live around her that her one child that lives on the other side of the United States just doesn’t get connected very often.

O.k., I definitely get a Birthday and Christmas card from her every year. And that use to be as much contact that a person of my generation could hope for. But with the invention of the computer and face book…the lack of contact is beginning to feel like the silent treatment. I’m sure that’s not what is happening here. While I live near my computer she rarely turns her’s on. She enjoys sights and smells of the earth that I rarely notice anymore. I’m sure she’ll call.

Hopefully Cousin Lisa will let her know I’m worried….and within a month or so she’ll call and wonder what I am fretting about!

Mom Wanted

I’m just about out of my head with worry…My Mom lives in Virginia, deep in the country, by herself, and the phone just keeps saying NET WORK BUSY.

You know they just had an earthquake there. I don’t know what that means. I lived in Virginia for the first twenty years of my life and never experienced an earthquake. I moved to California and got used to the ground shaking but I can’t remember my East Coast family ever telling me about a fault line being active on the East Coast.

I do remember my brother telling me that the earthquakes I was experiencing in California were because California was such a sinful place.

After hearing this couple of times, I told my brother that actually what was going to happen was that THE BIG Quake was coming to happen. California, however, would break off the United States and float away, a safe, beautiful island and the rest of the United States would tip over.

Well, with the horrible laws being created in Washington DC., I hope, No, I pray I wasn’t right! But this blog isn’t about my political views. So I won’t say any more about that.

What I will do is post a Mom Wanted sign…If anyone has seen this woman tell her to call Gloria.

More pictures of Mom and the farm are available here: http://cmewander.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-grandmas-garden-is-bigger-than-your.html

19 Miracles

17 Miracles is the legendary pioneer story of the Willie Handcart Company that left Florence, Nebraska on Aug. 17^th, 1856 in their quest to join the Latter-day Saints in the Salt Lake Valley. The movie was shown at the Bing Crosby Theater in downtown Spokane last night. I attended with Nathan and Joann Howard, owners of the Latter-Day Sentinel. http://spokane.latterdaysentinel.com/

They provided me with the tickets, which, unfortunately, I could only use one of. My husband had to work. My son was at a birthday party and my girlfriends had Family Home Evening responsibilities.

I don’t go into Spokane very often, so I put on my GPS and found the theater without any problems. But parking was another issue.

I must remember to take a roll of quarters to feed the parking meters when I go to Spokane.

I must remember to take a roll of quarters to feed the parking meters when I go to Spokane.

I must remember to take a roll of quarters to feed the parking meters when I go to Spokane.

No, that wasn’t a cut and paste. I actually retyped that 3 times. And I will remember to take quarters next time I go to Spokane…In fact I just went out and put them in the car.

Because: Last night I parked in a Diamond Metered Parking Lot, 5 blocks away and it cost me $4.00…because I had to use a credit card. OUCH! Thankfully, Nathan had parked his car close by and they gave me a ride to my car after the movie.

All I could think was: well tonight I actually witnessed 19 miracles. 17 in the theater, one that I walked safely to the theater and the last was that we actually found my car!

Yes, I do believe that miracles really still happen!