We are dedicating this Father’s Day to honoring men who are scientists, medical doctors, engineers, mathematicians, teachers, writers and musicians. These eminent individuals have integrated music into their thinking process. Music is a powerful tool for motivating, inspiring, educating and soothing pain. Remember no one is immune to the power of music! Parents remember to have classical music on your family’s iPod. June is graduation month for high schools, colleges and universities throughout the United States. Our amazing 2011 high school seniors and college seniors are scholars and musicians.
If anyone has an experience they would like to share with our readers on the benefits of classical music please send it and it will be include it in the July 2011 newsletter!
Thoughts for June 2011: For over 30 years, Madeline Frank, Ph.D. has had the privilege of teaching violin, viola, cello, and chamber music to the finest minds in the country. Her former students have attended and graduated from the University of Virginia, Duke University, Princeton, MIT, VA Tech., the University of Texas, The College of William & Mary, Indiana University and many other fine universities and colleges. Dr. Frank’s former students are scientists, chemists, engineers, Medical Doctors, CPAs, accountants, mathematicians, computer experts, professors, and teachers. On this special Father’s Day remember how important the gift of learning a musical instrument can be to educating and developing young minds.
Click here for Madeline’s Radio Show for June 2011:
How does Classical Music play a part of President Woodrow Wilson’s life and what instrument did he play?https://www.madelinefrankviola.com/madelines-one-minute-radio-show/
Madeline’s question of the month:
Who was President Woodrow Wilson?Woodrow Wilson was a scholar, lawyer, Professor at Princeton teaching jurisprudence and political economy (1890), New York Law School teacher of Constitutional Law, President at Princeton University (1902-1910), Governor of New Jersey (1911-1913) Professor at Bryn Mar College ( 1885-88), Professor at Wesleyan University (1888-90), coaching the football team & began the debate team, was a Nobel Prize winner, 28th President of the United States (1913-1921), a violinist since childhood , a husband , father of three daughters and grandfather to 5 grandchildren . He was the only President of the United States to have a Ph.D. Woodrow Wilson’s PhD was “in history and political science”.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born on Dec. 28, 1856 in Stanton, Virginia to the Reverend Dr. Joseph Ruggles Wilson and Jessie Janet Wilson. Woodrow was the third of four children. His mother, Jessie Wilson was born in England and her parents, Rev. Dr. Thomas Woodrow and Marion Williamson Woodrow were born in Scotland. Woodrow Wilson’s father’s parents were from Ireland.
Woodrow had great difficulty learning to read. He finally learned to read at the age of 10. “As a teenager he taught himself shorthand to compensate.” He achieved “academically through determination and self-discipline” in Augusta, Georgia where his father, Reverend Dr. Wilson “was minister of the First Presbyterian Church.” In 1870 the Wilson family moved to Columbia, South Carolina where Woodrow’s “father was professor at the Columbia Theological Seminary.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson
Woodrow’s first year of college in 1873 was spent at Davidson in North Carolina where he played baseball and was a center fielder. He did not return for a second year due to illness. His father began teaching at Princeton University and Woodrow transferred to Princeton graduating in 1879. As a student at Princeton he joined the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi, read history and philosophy, organized a Liberal Debating Society, was a member of the American Whig -Cliosophic Society, and had decided “to enter public life” inspired by “the British parliamentary sketch-writer Henry Lucy”.
For one year, in 1879, Woodrow attended the University of Virginia law school where he was a member of the Virginia Glee Club and was the President and member of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society. He returned home to Wilmington, North Carolina to continue his studies because of his failing health. Woodrow’s former classmate at the University of Virginia, Edward Ireland Renick, invited him to Atlanta in May 1882 “to join his new law practice as a partner.”
Woodrow studied hard and on October 19, 1882 took his examination for the Georgia Bar before Judge George Hillyer. It was said “he, Woodrow Wilson, passed easily.” In Atlanta “competition was fierce .. with 143 other lawyers, and .. few cases to keep him occupied. Nevertheless, he found staying current with the law obstructed his plans to study government to achieve his long-term plans for a political career.” Woodrow Wilson in April 1883 “applied to the John Hopkins University to study for a doctorate in history and political science and began his studies there in the fall” of 1883.
While working for his doctorate, Woodrow Wilson married Ellen Louise Axson in 1885. She was from Rome, Georgia, the daughter of a minister and exceptionally well-educated young women. Woodrow and Ellen Wilson were the proud parents of Margaret, Jessie, and Eleanor. They educated their daughters, taught them the value of helping others and were a very religious family who attended church every week. The Wilson’s were a happy and close nit family.
“He completed his doctoral dissertation, Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics and received a PhD in history and political science” in 1886.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson
After receiving his Ph.D. Woodrow taught at Cornell University, Bryn Mawr College, Wesleyan University, Princeton University, Evelyn College for Women, and New York Law School. In 1896 Woodrow Wilson was the speaker at “Princeton’s sesquicentennial celebration”. His speech title, “Princeton in the Nation’s Service” would later be the motto of Princeton University. It was later expanded to “Princeton in the Nation’s Service and in the Service of All Nations”. Woodrow “outlined his vision of the university in a democratic nation, calling on institutions of higher learning “to illuminate duty by every lesson that can be drawn out of the past”.
Woodrow complained Princeton did not “live up to its potential”, he said “There’s a little college down in Kentucky which in 60 years has graduated more men who have acquired prominence and fame than has Princeton in her 150 years.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson
Woodrow Wilson ran for Governor of New Jersey in 1910 and won by more than 49,000 votes. His “campaign focused on his independence from machine politics, and he promised that if elected he would not be beholden to party bosses. In the campaign Wilson promoted the “New Freedom”, emphasizing limited federal government and opposition to monopoly powers, often after consultation with his chief advisor Louis D. Brandeis. Wilson is the only President to hold an earned PhD degree and the only President to serve in a political office in New Jersey before election to the Presidency.” On August 6, 1914, Ellen Axson Wilson, President Wilson’s wife died “casting the president into prolonged gloom.” In March 1915 President Wilson met Edith Galt, a widow and they married on Dec. 18, 1915.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Galt
During President Wilson’s second term as president, 1917-1921, he “delivered his War Message to Congress on the evening of April 2, 1917. Wilson announced that his previous position of “armed neutrality” was no longer tenable now that the Imperial German Government had announced that it would use its submarines to sink any vessel approaching the ports of Great Britain, Ireland or any of the Western Coasts of Europe. He advised Congress to declare that the recent course of action taken by the Imperial German Government constituted an act of war. He proposed that the United States enter the war to “vindicate principles of peace and justice in the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic power”. He also charged that Germany had “filled our unsuspecting communities and even our offices of government with spies and set criminal intrigues everywhere afoot against our national unity of counsel, our peace within and without our industries and our commerce”. Furthermore, the United States had intercepted a telegram sent to the German ambassador in Mexico City that evidenced Germany’s attempt to instigate a Mexican attack upon the U.S. The German government, Wilson said, “means to stir up enemies against us at our very doors”. Wilson closed with the statement that the world must be again safe for democracy.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson
“In the late stages of the war, Wilson took personal control of negotiations with Germany, including the armistice. In 1918, he issued his Fourteen Points, his view of a post-war world that could avoid another terrible conflict. In 1919, he went to Paris to create the League of Nations and shape the Treaty of Versailles, with special attention on creating new nations out of defunct empires. In 1919, during the bitter fight with the Republican-controlled Senate over the U.S. joining the League of Nations, Wilson collapsed with a debilitating stroke” on October 2, 1919.
The stroke left him “almost totally incapacitated, paralyzed on his left side and blind in his left eye. He was confined to bed for weeks, used a wheelchair” and later was only able to walk “with the assistance of a cane.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson
President Wilson “refused to compromise, effectively destroying any chance for ratification. The League of Nations was established anyway, but the United States never joined. A Presbyterian of deep religious faith, Wilson appealed to a gospel of service and infused a profound sense of moralism into his idealistic internationalism, now referred to as “Wilsonian”. Wilsonianism calls for the United States to enter the world arena to fight for democracy. Scholars and experts rank him highly as president–on average as the sixth best president.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson
President Wilson left office March 4, 1921 and died on a February 3, 1924 in Washington, District of Columbia.
http://www.answers.com/topic/woodrow-wilson
http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/wilson
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/644766/Woodrow-Wilson
“Singing a Key to Parkinson’s Therapy Slows Loss of Vocal Degeneration Associated with the Disease” (May 21, 2011) by Jodie Sinnema from the Edmonton Journal.
“Merrill Tanner, choir director, singer and speech therapist, began the choir last year as part of a research study to determine if singing exercises can strengthen the voices of people with the disease. She trains them as she would actors or professional singers, getting them to exercise their abdominal muscles to support deep diaphragm breathing and powerful voices. People in the choir have extensive warm up routines, stretching their cheeks and lips through exaggerating vowel pronunciations, waving their hips like belly dancers and bending their knees in the Charleston swing style while singing oohs and ahs.” Choir director Tanner says to her group, “You’re Italian opera singers.” She encourages “them to sing dramatically and boldly.” Tanner says, “People with Parkinson’s tend to do less rather than more, then lose their voices or facial expressions without even noticing. Then they get out of shape and then they can’t make a louder voice. I’m pushing the voice production.”
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Singing+Parkinson+therapy/4821236/story.html
Evidence & Articles supporting the benefits of classical music in your daily life, in the Public School Classrooms, and while doing homework after school:
Mrs. S teaches 7th grade Math at Davis Middle School in Hampton, VA.: “Students perform better on tests and quizzes while listening to Mozart Symphonies in the background..”
Mrs. C’s high school math class in Colorado: “The students asked for music in class. I told them I would play only Mozart. At first they objected but soon decided they liked the music, because it made them feel better and able to focus more on their lessons. Consequently, not only did the grades get better, so did the discipline. Then the students began requesting Mozart.”
Mrs. G had her fifth grade students listening to classical music, played softly, while the children did creative writing assignments and when they did problem solving in math. It created a calm atmosphere conducive to problem solving and creative thinking as well as an appreciation of music that they might not have experienced. The results were so good that she incorporated this into her teaching for the last five years of her teaching career.
Mrs. JC had her fourth grade reading class of 22 students, listening to Mozart and other classical music during class for the entire school year .The children have consistently made 100’s on tests and work. These are just average students not exceptional.
Mrs. J has 3 children, ages 17, 13, and 9 who have been listening to Mozart and other classical music while doing their homework after school since March 05. She has seen them become more focused and relaxed, finishing homework quicker, with more accuracy which has led to higher grades.
Northside Middle School in Norfolk, Virginia is using classical music in halls and class rooms with very good success. “Classical Music Plays at Norfolk School”
“I Am Hampton City Schools: I am Joshua Scott the 2011 Valedictorian of Hampton High School” in Hampton, Virginia.
Joshua Scott is the top Number 1 senior out of 350 students at Hampton High School and will be the Valedictorian of his class on June 18, 2011. He is headed to Harvard University to major in Environmental Engineering. Joshua Scott is a scholar, an athlete, and a musician. Since the 9th grade, 11th grade and 12th grade he has been the Number 1 student in his class at Hampton High School.
In the third grade Joshua began to study the violin with Dr. Madeline Frank and switched to the viola in 5th grade continuing through the 12th grade. He has been playing solo, chamber music and orchestra concerts with Dr. Frank’s class for ten years. In his spare time he is a math tutor in all levels of math for Middle school and High school students and also tutors Spanish. Joshua is president of both Mu Alpha Theta and Men of Valor is a member of the Model United Nations, the National Honor Society and the Spanish Club.
As an athlete Joshua is a black belt in Karate and was the team Captain in basketball at Hampton High School. During the summers of 2009 and 2010 Joshua Scott worked in NASA’s Internship program and this summer of 2011 he will continue to work for NASA in the Internship program.
“Huntington Public Schools Seniors, Huntington, N.Y.” (March 2011) , Huntington Senior Class News. Top seniors in Huntington High school Presidential scholars and musicians:
Mary-Liz O’Neill, scholar and singer “has been named as one of 60 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts candidates”. Huntington Superintendent John J. Finello said, “All of us are delighted to learn that Mary-Liz is a candidate for such a prestigious honor. She’s an incredibly talented young woman.”
Natasha Stollmackis is a scholar and a musician and has been “engaged in a music education internship, recently conducted the junior band like a professional, plays piano and percussion, was a drum major with the marching band, is the president of the Tri-M music honor society and has done a sterling job of organizing events and speaking to younger students about the benefits of the music program. Ms. Stollmack has been a member of the high school wind ensemble since her sophomore year, jazz band since freshman year and the pit orchestra for school musicals for three years.
She’s in her second year as co-editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, The Dispatch and is also a member of the English and Italian honor societies.”
Mikah Feldman-Stein’s is a scholar and musician. His “music career has come far since he picked up a clarinet as a third grader. Two years later, he began playing a saxophone and today the Huntington High School senior is an All-State jazz musician.” He says, “Since I started playing music, jazz has always played a prevalent role.Over the years, I have played jazz and worked to improve through both the school system and outside of school. My primary jazz teacher has been my dad, who emphasized jazz’s importance to me when I first picked up an instrument.” Mikah “ has been a member of the high school’s jazz ensemble for the past four years. The teenager has played alto saxophone in the Nassau-Suffolk jazz program for the past three years where he’s worked under the direction of Joe Schaefer and Bill Katz.” Mikah Feldman-Stein says, “I have learned so much from these seasoned jazz musicians. Their guidance has been crucial to my development as a jazz musician.”
“Huntington High School senior Sarah Ehrman has won the Wendy’s High School Heisman Award for excellence in academics, athletics and community and school leadership.” She is a scholar, star athlete, and musician. Sarah Ehrman says, “I have been playing the viola since fourth grade and this year I’m the section leader for the violas in the school orchestra.” She “is All-County on the instrument. She recently joined the chamber orchestra and said she’s “very excited” to play challenging music with the group’s director, Lisa Leonardi. Looking back academically at my years at Huntington High School, I am very proud of all I have accomplished.” While at Huntington High “she has completed demanding honors and Advanced Placement courses while earning letters in varsity soccer, basketball and lacrosse. She’s performed community service, raising money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, participating in a walkathon to benefit veterans and is also a peer mediator at the high school.”
Shayne Larkin, scholar, athlete, and musician. “The Blue Devil marching band has been a big part of Ms. Larkin’s life this fall. She has enjoyed working with a huge influx of freshmen who “brought so much enthusiasm with them,” the senior said. “I was lucky enough to be a section leader for the bunch! I like to believe I contributed to the influx of pride and unity within the program. Nothing was more fulfilling than having a leadership role for my musical section, the front ensemble, also known as ‘The Pit.’ In all my years in the band, there has never been such an explosive – in a good way – chemistry among the Pit’s members. I’ll never forget it.”
“She’s been her class’s recording secretary for the past three years. She enjoys participating in the student government and finds it “great because it provides an outlet for students to get the ball rolling on things they’d like to see occur in the school community.Ms. Larkin is not afraid to raise her voice. Last year she prodded her class to initiate a fundraiser for the victims of an earthquake in Haiti. “Bracelets for Haiti” were sold for a few dollars and the proceeds were donated to the American Red Cross for its relief efforts.”
Shira Moskowitz, scholar and musician is ” a member of the chamber choir and the drama club, as well as the National Honor Society, Science Honor Society (she’s the secretary), Spanish Honor Society, Key club, the Acapella group, and she’s on the editorial board of the high school student newspaper, The Dispatch. As immersed in school clubs and societies as she is, Ms. Moskowitz’s primary co-curricular activity since her freshman year has been NFTY NAR or the North American Federation of Temple Youth’s New York area region.” She says, she has served “as the religious and cultural vice-president. It is a time consuming, but rewarding job and I have already piloted two new programs for the region; a service writing tool kit and a Hebrew word-of-the-week program.”
http://www.hufsd.edu/schools/highschool/senior/senior_index.html
“Meet the Top Scholars in Morse High School’s Class of 2011” (May 20, 2011) from The Times Record, Mid-coast Main. Five of these top students are also musicians. “The class valedictorian is Charles Taylor Oddleifson.” He is a scholar athlete and musician. He was “honored by the high school administration as recipient of the Maine Principals’ Association Principal’s Award. As National Honor Society president, AP Scholar and recipient of numerous academic awards throughout his years at Morse, Oddleifson plans to attend Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. He played soccer and tennis for the Shipbuilders and trumpet in the jazz band. He played a leadership role in the school’s Amnesty International club, worked at electronics and solar company Art-Tec, and volunteered at Habitat for Humanity.”
“First Honor Essayist Kristen Shirley, of Bath, gained school wide acclaim this year with a piano solo at the annual Morse High Bazaar (MoHiBa) variety show.” She is a scholar, athlete, and musician who “volunteers at Mid Coast Hospital during the summer months, tutors and works for Habitat for Humanity. She was named a National Merit Finalist, and received numerous academic awards including the Wells College Book Award and the Future Women Engineering Award. Her activities at Morse High include running for the cross country team, working on the stage crew for the drama program, joining the Amnesty International and writing for the Optimus Stylus, a student literary publication.”
“Second Honor Essayist Emily Howell” is a scholar, athlete, and musician. “She participated in the Bath-Tsugaru Sister City Program’s cultural exchange last summer and hopes to continue traveling around the world in the future. Howell’s range of interests include sports – she enjoyed soccer, track, lacrosse, swimming and skiing while at Morse – art and music. Howell earned a Maine Excellence in Art award and honorable mention in the U.S. Congressional Art Contest, while being named a finalist in the Maine Community College System’s Journey Into Writing competition and playing on the school’s jazz band. Howell has received recognition as a National Geographic Kids Hands-On Explorer Grand Prize winner and received the Phi Beta Kappa award last spring. She volunteers for the Cathance River Education Alliance and plans to attend Northwestern University School of Communications in Illinois.”
“Honored as seventh is the class of 2011 is Hannah Milam” who is a scholar, athlete, and musician. She “participated on the Shipbuilder soccer, swimming and lacrosse teams, as well as the jazz band and Student Community Liaison Council. She received the Mount Holyoke Book Award and was selected to attend the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference sportsmanship summit. She performs community service through the Relay for Life, Main Street Bath’s fundraiser quiz show “So You Think You Know Bath,” and assisting at the alumni banquet. She “works at downtown kitchenware store Now You’re Cooking and plans to attend either the University of Rhode Island or the University of Vermont to study environmental or marine sciences.”
“Rounding out the top 10 is Jessie Blum.” She is a scholar, athelete, and musician. “She is a percussionist who plays drums for the school’s jazz band, jazz combo and two percussion ensembles. An avid soccer and lacrosse player, she participated in MoHiBa, as well as the Midcoast School of Music’s Queen Ensemble and the garden club. Academic awards have come in piano and music theory, history and English, and have included the Smith Book Award and selection to the All-Academic Soccer Team. Blum has helped with fundraisers for Fields For Our Future, breast cancer awareness, the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center and the alumni banquet. She will attend classes at Smith College in Northhampton, Mass., to study either English or music.”
http://www.timesrecord.com/articles/2011/05/20/news/doc4dd6a7bce436f772917761.txt
“2011 Class Day Speaker, Valedictorian, and Salutatorian Announced” (April 22, 2011) Columbia University School of General studies, New York City. Elliot Shackelford is the Class of 2011 salutatorian. He is a scholar and a musician. “Elliot began his career as a musician at the age of five after his aunt, a Columbia alumna, gave him a month of piano lessons as a gift. At the age of 18, Elliot began a full-time performance career, and since that time he has given more than 2,500 concerts-including 19 performances at the White House-and has played for more than half a million people nationwide. Prior to enrolling at Columbia in 2008, Elliot earned associate degrees in both political science and business administration with highest honors from Georgia Perimeter College. While enrolled at Columbia, Elliot served on the Committee on Instruction representing the academic interests of GS students, as a GS tour guide, and as the General Studies Student Council’s Vice-President of Policy. As a political science major, Elliot is also active in the Columbia University International Relations Forum and the Political Science Students Association. After graduation, he plans to enroll in a top-tier law school.”