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I
have admired Ken from my early days at the New England Conservatory
in the 1970's, particularly as I got to know him better
as a very talented saxophone student. He did yeoman work
in our NEC recording of 1920's Paul Whiteman repertory recreations,
enthusiastically playing a variety of saxophones and, if
I recall correctly, bass clarinet. I was impressed!
Since
then Ken has over the years exhibited an unwavering and
selfless devotion to both his own students (just as his
own teacher Joseph Allard did) and the creation of new musical
works. My new Saxophone Sonata is the second of my works
to be premiered by Ken Radnofsky. Before World-Wide Concurrent
Premieres existed as an organization to commission new works,
Ken gathered together all of Joe's former students to commission
my Concerto in Allard's honor.
Congratulations on thirty years of devoted teaching and
beautiful music making!
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The
Role of the Artist/Teacher: Kenneth Radnofsky
Celebrates
Thirty years of Teaching
By Bruce Ronkin
From
Saxophone Journal, November/December 1999, Vol. 24, No.
2
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| As one might expect during three decades of teaching,
Radnofsky has found the time to reflect upon what makes a good teacher.
He believes that music schools are traditionally made up of four
kinds of teachers: 1. Well-known performers who don't care about
their students. "Why do they teach?" asks Radnofsky, 2.
Well-known performers/teachers who do care. 3. Lesser-known teacher/performers
who care a lot, and 4. Unknown teachers, who don't perform and don't
care. (Perhaps this is the group George Bernard Shaw had in mind.)
"As teachers, " says Radnofsky, " we work daily to
avoid falling into categories one and four, while we aspire to categories
two and three." |
In 1903 a witty George Bernard Shaw offered the famous
barb, "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches." While we
can certainly applaud the writer for crafting a clever phrase, the reality
is that performing and teaching are not mutually exclusive ideals. All
performers teach. Whether the learning occurs within the walls of a
formal teaching studio or by example from the stage, all performers
are teachers. One of our world's greatest treasures is the performer/teacher.
The performer who devotes a portion of a precious life's work to teaching
the artistic traditions, techniques, and ideals of one generation to
the next makes a priceless contribution to the artistic continuum -
one cornerstone of our collective culture. Today's art is built upon
the foundation of past generations. In nearly every form of art, and
in nearly every corner of the globe, there are artist/teachers passing
on their knowledge of humankind's artistic journey to a new generation.
It is to these teachers of the arts that this article is dedicated.
One such artist/teacher, saxophonist Kenneth Radnofsky, is proudly celebrating
thirty years of teaching. This anniversary has encouraged him to pause
and ponder the role of teacher.
 Kenneth
Radnofsky has always taught - at least since the age of seventeen when
he started with twenty students at J. Frank Dobie High School in Pasadena,
Texas. According to Radnofsky, he has never appreciated teaching more
than he does now at the age of 46. And as any committed teacher knows,
this career choice can be much more than a full-time job. Artist/teachers
tend to fill their days with a dizzying mixture of teaching, performing,
and administrative activities. "My career as a performer,"
says Radnofsky, "provides both a good model for my students, and
a valuable artistic outlet for me. All told, I work a sixty-hour week,
'more and more.' After all, there are 168 hours in a week! Why do some
complain about a forty-hour week? It's all part of being a teacher."
James O'Dell, Chair of the Music Division at the Boston
Conservatory comments on Radnofsky's devotion to his career. "At
the Boston Conservatory Mr. Radnofsky is one of our most distinguished
faculty artists. No one is more committed to music making and music
education, and possesses a purer love of teaching. These are qualities
great artist educators share, qualities that set the stage for excellence
in our art and profession."
The significance and tradition of teaching music has
been pondered for centuries. At the beginning of the nationally telecast
1963 concert season of the New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts,
Leonard Bernstein asked, "What have teachers got to do with music?
The answer is - everything. We can all imagine a painter who is self
taught; a writer; but it is almost impossible to imagine a musician
who doesn't owe something to one teacher or another. The trouble is,
we don't always realize how important teachers are, in music or in anything
else. Teaching is probably the noblest profession in the world - the
most unselfish, difficult, and honorable profession. But it is also
the most unappreciated, underrated, underpaid, and underpraised profession
in the world."
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