Musicians in Residence 2016

From November 4-5 we were fortunate to have two distinguished musicians, composers, educators visit AISG and work with both middle and high school music students. John Jacobson and Roger Emerson work together and “find [themselves] in schools a lot to see [their] music done and help people do [their] music better.”

John Jacobson grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, United States. He has five brothers and four sisters. Jacobson has spent a lot of time working for Disney, including one year in Tokyo Disneyland. He explained that he was part of the singing and dancing and he also staged many shows for Disney. In addition to being a part of Disney, he has also choreographed many dances for halftime shows and parades. While Jacobson enjoyed working for Disney, he found that “[his] real calling was music education.” He said, “all of my brothers and sisters are teachers. My Mom and Dad were teachers; I come from a teaching family. And, at some point in my life, I decided I wanted to take my professional entertainment experience and combine it with education.” Jacobson writes 4-5 musicals a year and they are geared mostly for younger children.

Roger Emerson is from Southern California and his grandfather was from a small city outside of Guangzhou, China. This is Emerson’s first time in China and he explained that he was enthusiastic to come to China. Emerson is from a “very musical family” and learned to play the guitar and sing at a young age. He started writing songs at the age of 14 and he explained, “I was trying to get a hit record, but it never came to be. So, I went onto school and got a degree in music education.” Following his degree, Emerson taught in California and began writing songs for the choir at the middle school where he was teaching. In 1977, Emerson had his first publication with Jenson Publications and he continues to write and arrange pieces. In fact, “[he] writes or arranges about thirty pieces a year. [He] does a lot of stool versions of Disney tunes.”

Emerson and Jacobson remarked that they thoroughly enjoyed working with AISG students. Emerson said, “the students are terrific and receptive and open to new things and ideas.” And, Jacobson shared, “students are the same all over the world. They’re just kids trying to find their place in this world. With music, there are no language barriers. In every culture there is music and dance, so it’s very mobile. We can plonk down anywhere and there will be people who love music.”

Jacobson mentioned, “you don’t forget the things you learn through music and nobody teaches better than those who teach through music. You teach students empathy, honor, courage and if they learn about these for other people, then I’ve done my job.”

When I asked Ms. Lin how the visit went, she commented, “the students were very excited before and after our Musicians in Residence visit.” She continued to say, “it was a joy to watch John and Roger work with our students and see authentic learning take place in the fun-filled environment. Students were motivated by such high caliber guests and were challenged by them.” Ms. Lin was astonished by “the transformation of what the students accomplished from the beginning of class to the end of class.” She concluded by saying, “we were indeed fortunate to have such high caliber guests as our visiting artists.” Mr. Bott said, “all students were given a rare treatment of being coached by the composer of pieces they were currently singing and having lively movements added on-the-spot by Jacobson.”