So happy together. An upcoming study in the Journal of Organizational Behavior finds that employees showed higher degrees of cooperation and lower degrees of self-interest when listening to happy music. Study participants took part in a public goods game that involved choices that were either self- or team-oriented. Different groups listened t...

Benjamin Grosvenor awarded new Philharmonic prize Benjamin Grosvenor is the first recipient of the Ronnie and Lawrence Ackman Classical Piano Prize, the newest prize awarded by the New York Philharmonic. In October, a confidential panel of musicians selected Grosvenor, 24, as the inaugural recipient. The award includes a ca...

I recently had the pleasure of hosting ten high-school girls from Kenya. This was their first trip to the United States, and the girls have been part of an online music teaching program at The University of Georgia, where I teach. These girls were very excited to see the U.S. and to try many new experiences. The visit was a grand success, and I'm s...

Piano teachers have great jobs, and I think most of us are thankful that we get to spend our days sharing something we love with our students. It is immensely gratifying to see our students grow as musicians and watch music become an important part of their lives. At times, however, it seems like the rest of the world doesn't see music study in the...

by Shirley Penzi The first piece of furniture my husband and I bought for our new home was a fine Mason & Hamlin piano. We placed it prominently in the sunset room and cared for it meticulously. But it sat mostly idle, beckoning to be played for several years. When our daughter, Summer, was three-and-a-half years old, we began to feel she was r...

That's a phrase we hear and say all the time, but until recently I hadn't put too much thought into what it really means. We say it when we want to imply that a task is natural, instinctive, and easily recalled by our memory - typically our kinesthetic memory. We use it when we want to describe something that ...