Mastering Focus and Concentration in the Music Classroom
Date
February 10-May 2, 2025
Online
Course Code
7245A
Credits
3
Tuition
$1146
Course Description
In an era of technology-mediated relationships and overwhelming amounts of information at our fingertips, we are constantly exposed to attention-grabbing activities that can erode our ability to focus and function optimally in and outside the classroom. How can we regain a sense of control in our inter-connected and fast-moving world? How do we teach a reward-seeking generation of students and help them survive and thrive in the attention economy? This course offers practical and proven strategies to reclaim focus, cultivate brain fitness, and optimize productivity for students and teachers alike. The course addresses the most common focus-hindering factors of contemporary life and explores behavioral and cognitive tools to gain control over our brains and behaviors. We will explore building health-promoting habits by goal setting and mindfulness. At the end of this course, you will have acquired an essential toolkit of science-supported focus and concentration strategies that can be tailored to your performance needs, and that of your students, for any work environment or situation.
This is an online course that runs from February 10, 2025 -May 2, 2025. Our class will take place asynchronously, meaning our course does not have a required synchronous (live) class session for you to attend. You will, however, be expected to devote an amount of time similar to what you would have spent in a lecture (up to three to four hours per week) viewing videos, reading assigned materials, and completing class assignments for this course. Throughout the course, you will be expected to meet deadlines reviewing weekly modules, reading assigned articles, completing quizzes, assignments, participating in board discussions, completing one research project, and a final project. I will hold live chat sessions once a week in the evening to check in and answer any questions you may have about the course material.
Instructor
Dr. Mariana Gariazzo received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Music in flute performance from Yale University. She has been a recipient of several awards and distinctions in solo and chamber music categories including Fundacion Antorchas, Juventudes Musicales, UNC Orchestra competition, and the Robert Wilson Award for Outstanding Woodwind Performance at Yale. She has been awarded multiple grants including the Innovative Pedagogy Grant, the Arts Enhancement Grant, the Academic Innovation Grant, the High Impact Innovation Practices, and the Advance Climate Together Grant at Texas A&M University.
Dr. Gariazzo’s research focuses on new music by Latin American composers and has served as a guest artist and speaker on the subject at prominent venues and conferences in Europe, Asia, Latin and North America. In solo and orchestral settings, she has performed with such ensembles as the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Oak Ridge Symphony, the Santa Fe Symphony, the Philharmonia Orchestra at Yale, New Music New Haven, Neither Music, the National Youth Orchestra of Peru, the Academic Orchestra at Colon Theater, the National University of Cuyo Symphony Orchestra, and the National Orchestra of Argentina. She has been invited to present and perform at multiple National Flute Association Conventions, the Texas Music Association Conference, the Puerto Rico Flute Symposium (Puerto Rico), World Flutes Festival (Argentina), the International Low Flutes Festival (USA, Japan), the International Flute Festival of Lima (Peru) and university campuses across the USA.
Gariazzo serves as President of the Chicago Flute Club and chairs the National Flute Association Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She actively collaborates with composers in commissioning, recording and performing new music for flutes. Her debut CD, Revelations, will be released by MSR Classic Records in 2021.