Fly Baby Music Teacher to Lisbon -2

BIG FEATHERY HUG to all who contributed to last year's success. You went over my goal of $5,000.  Let's do it again in 2017!

The Story:
I've face-planted in grass and on pavement, but nothing would make a sudden fall more delightful than seeing this come rushing at my face:



And while the jazzy sounds of Royal Street buskers and Frenchmen Street  clubs in  New Orleans are sweeter than anything I know,  now it's time for me to explore some new music and learn how to teach babies music better as a graduate researcher in a very special lab in Lisbon.

It's called LAMCI , the Laboratory of Music and Communication in Infancy, and it's a fabulous combination of science and fun [Video in Portuguese]



I'm leaving September 7th, 2015 for the first semester, and it's going to cost a bundle out of pocket: airfare, tuition, books, room and board. Second semester will be easy when student grants kick in.  But till then, can you feel how close September 7th is?? [ Squawk!]

Feel like getting me over there?

Please, click "Donate" now :)

Here's a little more of my story:

My path as a teaching musician began as a 4-year-old child singing the lead in a call-and-response Christmas cantata and later performing my first violin solo.

In the call-and-response, I heard my voice ring out clear and perfectly in tune, and I felt connected to the congregation when they sang back to me. During the violin performance, even though the piano accompanist lost her place in the music, my arm kept moving the bow, my fingers kept pressing the strings, and I finished the solo sustained by what I now know as audiation. Both times, it felt like the spotlight was shining from inside me, not just on me. As I began my professional career teaching baby music, however, I faced yawns and blank faces from the children. It was not until after desperately researching alternatives and applying Gordon Music Learning Theory, which formalized the term audiation,  that I began to realize success as a teaching musician.  The scholars and tech at LAMCI are primed for investigating and extending what I began to explore with GMLT so I can share new discoveries  with other music teachers and help create the musical world of our future from the ground up.

But besides hitting the books, 

I want to hear this in the streets around Martim Moniz: 



Or feel an oncoming Jurassic Park moment in the eerily ruined sanctuary of Sao Domingo:



... Or drool over Pastelaria Versailles in Saldanha.



In every case, I will miss all the baby, teacher, and parent friends I've made in my studio, concerts, and classrooms in Houston and New Orleans.


But being away from them just means I'll be preparing something bigger and better for their enrichment and creative expression.

I appreciate what you're doing to make this possible for me. Thank you so much in advance for your love and support!


Yours,
Ekanem