Customer Reviews

Teaching Genius: Dorothy DeLay and the Making of a Musician

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Music is my avocation, but I teach on the high school level. Not only did this book fill me in on the inner workings of the clasical music business (lots of juicy stories that made me feel "in the know"), but I feel inspired by Dorothy Delay's masterful teaching style. I feel I'm a better teacher myself now when I enter the classroom and approach my students' difficulties and strengths. The book is so clearly written and I kept wondering how the author, Barbara Lourie Sand, got all this information. She must have spent a great deal of time with her fascinating subject because Ms. Delay came alive, her gifted students came alive, and so did all the mavens and greats in the music world. I'm telling all my colleagues and friends about the book. I'm urging them to give it a read because it is a treasure.

Barbara Lourie Sand's book about Dorothy DeLay is written by a polished journalist who knows how to tell a good story. The early part of the book is thus the most interesting, tracing DeLay's life and development, first as a moderately successful concert violinist and chamber musician, next as longtime assistant to the great pedagogue Ivan Galamian, and finally as legendary teacher and mentor of many of the most successful classical violinists of the 20th century.

Sand mentions in a preface that she shaped this book during the course of a ten-year association with DeLay during which she was also writing articles about some of her well-known students. She obviously had a warm and close relationship with DeLay, her husband Edward Newhouse, and her students, and while this gave her an enviable access it probably hurt her journalistic acumen in the end. Too often, troubling questions are raised and treated dismissively, or quickly dropped--the hardships of raising and nurturing exceptionally gifted children, or outright abuse in the name of discipline and training, for example. Sand treats DeLay's rupture with Galamian in a fair amount of detail, but does not mention that some of DeLay's students have broken very publicly with her as well. Criticisms of DeLay and her style are mostly confined to one chapter and are largely made by unnamed sources. Though DeLay's approach to teaching is discussed in detail, important issues, such as the pros and cons of learning from a teacher who herself never demonstrates, are left untouched.

In short, this book is a good read and intriguing glimpse into the arcane and competitive world of top classical music-making. Because of her unwillingness to "go for the jugular," as she admits at one point, Barbara Lourie Sand loses a chance to make it even more.

Minor quibble: The Accolay Concerto is _not_ part of the Suzuki violin literature.

Sand's three dimensional portrait of the mythically gifted violin teacher Dorothy DeLay is a treasure trove of useful information,practical tips and humourous anecdotes.From her priveleged position as an"insider"Sand sheds light on this truly gifted teacher's power to produce a constellation of stars in the highly charged competitive field of world renowned violinists.The author was granted permission to sit in on DeLay's lessons over a period of ten years.Her verbatim transcriptions of conversations between teacher and pupils,her own insightful observations and her interviews with now famous violinists and conductors are both colorful and illuminating. Most fascinating to follow is the way that the mysterious gift of inborn talent in very young pupils is nurtured and brought to its fullest potential by this magically intuitive and caring teacher whose unique gift of communication has inspired the devotion of so many of her stars.If there were a Hall of Fame for pedagogues,DeLay would be inducted by unanimous vote!

My love of the violin came late -- only a year ago, in fact. Since then, I have busied myself aquiring CDs of wonderful violinists and reading everything I can about their lives and their work. I have even attempted to learn this intricate instrument (but am realizing that I would be happier if I stuck to my recordings and reading!). In any event, I really enjoyed this book -- the stories of DeLay's talented (and not so talented) students, their parents, her teaching "style," etc. My only criticism is that the writing is weak. It struck me as the work of someone who is not entirely comfortable as a writer -- that is, Sand seems to be an able researcher with a wonderful grasp of the import of her material, but she has no real tools or passion to communicate her findings. Remarkably, however, the subject carries the text and the reader really can get around the writer's awkwardness. If you like music, teaching, and descriptions of how the truly gifted "make it," don't let the less than inspired writing keep you away from this neat book.

The most important problem in the U.S. today is education and teaching. Ms. Sand's book is about a very special teacher teaching very special students. If you have ever studied music or are interested in music you will love this book.

But Ms. Sand's book about Ms. Delay is much more. It is about communicating ideas and about different ways of treating people so that teaching is effective. As such this book is must reading for those interested in either teaching or child development. Anyone who is interested in education in any field will devour Ms. Sand's book for the insights that it gives about teaching.

Ms. Delay's approach is based on respect for the individual. From the outside this respectful approach may seem insufficently directive for some people, especially when compared to the previous generation of teachers, such as Galamian, with approaches that were often prescriptive and authoritarian.

But in Ms. Sand's book, the effectiveness and success of Ms. Delay's respectful approach is amply demonstrated. Fortunately Ms. Sand observed Ms. Delay for almost a decade so that the process and effectiveness of Ms. Delay's approach can be clearly seen through the success and individuality of her students. The remarkable number of successful students she has taught is a measure of her extraordinary effectiveness.

Interestingly, Ms. Sand writes about Ms Delay and her students in her own respectful style, which combines insight with wit. Read "Teaching Genius" and be inspired.

We're enticed into thinking that we're going to learn something of the pedagogy of "teaching genius," but what we're presented with is a pedagogy which can be summarized in just a few words: "Sugarplum, do you think it might be done differently?"

This is a fine technique, but it doesn't require 200+ pages ... to learn about it.

The major lesson of the book is how artists have been manipulated into the concert and recording worlds not by talent, but by connections. The author begins to explore this territory--the teacher as dealmaker--but stops short of revealing any insights.

Fully 1/2 of the book is an advertising vehicle for DeLay's students.

Being a violinist, I found it utterly foolish to not read a book about one of the best teachers of the instrument in the 20th Century. The first day I purchased it I read almost 200 pages, literally unable to put it down.
The relationships Ms. Delay had with her students were not only educational ones, but personal friendships. How unreal that despite the graduation of many students, they still went back to her for lessons after landing their professional solo careers! Many times a violinist is too hard-headed and full of himself to get advice from another person, but such is not the case with the students of Ms. Delay.
I felt, as I read the book, that I could not only relate to some of the technical issues the students had, but that I was actually receiving a private lesson from Delay without ever touching my violin.
I definitely intend on reading this book again, and again, and again, with highlighter in hand. I have a completely different outlook on how I not only listen to the phrasing of music but in creating my own phrasing as well.
The world has lost a teacher, but more importantly a wonderful woman, which many could call a friend and mother-figure.
This was a fabulous book and I recommend it to every musician, no matter what instrument you play.

Through Mrs. Sand's warm, informed voice the reader can enter the veiled world of Julliard: its politics, its students, and its famous teachers. Her subject is Dorothy Delay, a woman, we learn, who from the '40s and 50's on had the brillant talent and requisite nerve to break through the traditional male world of classical, dictatorial music teaching, and assert her own humanistic beliefs and style. This is a book also for people, musical and otherwise, who want to learn how to overcome professional barriers. It is inspiring.

Some may think that Delay's skill in building successful young careers lies in having the ear to choose the most talented applicants to her studio. However, this book is true to its title: anyone can find clues here for becoming a great teacher.

Sand's miraculous feat was to extract both subtle and bold methods of teaching from years of observing Mrs. Delay. Anyone who teaches another, no matter what the subject, no matter what the level, will learn from this book. It is emotionally rich and informative.

I had hoped to enjoy this book on Dorothy DeLay, but found it instead a disappointment. The adulatory tone, the fulsome praise of DeLay, are gratuitous and alienating. One feels the author was intimidated by her subject and by DeLay's formidable husband, who took offense (as she recounts) at any hint of an independent comment or question. So the author dared write nothing but the most effusive praise. The price of access was apparently the author's journalistic integrity. What is the purpose of this book? Does it serve the reader -- or the subject? Another reviewer calls this "hagiography", and the word is unfortunately apt.

Some have criticized this book for giving an overly-fawning portrayal of Dorothy DeLay. However, this book contains an excellent chapter devoted solely to DeLay's critics, and it doesn't shoot the critics down; it discusses the criticisms in a fair way.

Dorothy DeLay died in 2002 but her legacy lives on. This is the woman responsible for teaching Perlman, Sarah Chang, Midori, Salerno-Sonnenberg, Nigel Kennedy, Cho-Liang Lin, Mark Kaplan, Shlomo Mintz, Gil Shaham, Simon Fischer, and too many more to mention.

I never played for her, but did watch a lesson she taught once. Admittedly, it was rife with many of the things of which her critics complain: She arrived about three hours late (Getting "DeLayed"), and once the lesson began she was constantly answering the knock at the studio door, the phone ringing, etc.

However, knowing that many people sought to play for her at least once, so they could then put her name on their resume, she didn't always take these occasions seriously, especially given the hundreds and hundreds of violinists she heard in her life.

Those special musical geniuses that DeLay *did* take a special interest in, though, she took a long way. While some violin teachers like to focus only on developing technique through scales and exercises, DeLay never failed to emphasize the musical, expressive, artistic side of the violinist's development. Whereas her contemporary Ivan Galamian would say "I don't teach music," meaning he only taught technique, musical interpretation notwithstanding, Dorothy DeLay would constantly ask her students things like "Where do you think this phrase is going?" and "What do you think is the most important note in this phrase?" and "What do you think Beethoven might have been thinking when he composed this passage?" So many music teachers today, of all instruments, neglect this area of development as they view performance as an olympic sport of technique. Yes, the profession is extremely competitive, but in such competition, when there are 1000 violinists that can hit the notes, the ones that stand out are the ones with a superior *artistic* finish.

This book is an excellent survey of the inner world of Dorothy DeLay's studio; her philosophy, her former students, and much more. She was the single most influential violin teacher of the 20th century.