Re: I ACTUALLY attended Curtis


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Posted by anon on June 27, 2001 at 06:16:52:

In Reply to: I ACTUALLY attended Curtis posted by Eric Bubacz on June 26, 2001 at 22:49:23:

That is a stellar recommendation for attending Curtis (free, great orchestra). However, your post, and the posts in the other thread from former Curtis students, fall well short of ringing endorsements for Paul K's teaching (note that his playing ability and other personal qualities were not questioned, just his teaching).

Curtis sounds like a great place to me. But in my research of tuba teachers and not just schools, not only was Paul K never mentioned as one of the top 10 to 15 teachers in the country, I was steered away from him by two different highly respected teachers in that top 10 list.

The only other teacher I was warned about is a "big name symphony player at a sunbelt university," a tremendous player with a real personality problem to boot. Unfortunately I did not heed this advice; I had to find out about this guy for myself the hard way, at the great financial expense of a trip to meet him and to have a lesson, which turned out to tbe the most negative music experience of my life.

Finally, there was a thread last year about another "big name" tuba teacher who, it was rumored, has a medical problem that keeps him from playing his horn. There was a lot of anger over that thread, but the rumor turned out to be true, and this guy teaches at about 3 or 4 schools. Given the high cost of traveling to meet these guys, I was grateful to find out this tidbit before making a pilgrimmage to have a lesson with him (I am not interested in any teacher who cannot play his horn).

Bottom line - you have to make up your own mind about teachers. Maybe this forum is an inappropriate place to spread rumors about people. Some of you Paul K students should probably make yourselves available to private questions from interested Curtis prospectives.

Finally, if Sean thinks these posts are out of line, he can delete them.


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