Donna Schwartz, part 2

Marketing Music Education with Kathleen Heuer

This week I continue my conversation with Donna Schwartz of Music Teachers’ Resource Guide. We talk about her two masters degrees and whether she’d do it all again, why she believes music education in our schools is so vulnerable, and her two biggest goals.

About Donna Schwartz

Donna’s musical career can be best described as the “comeback kid.” At age 9 she was not able to produce a sound on the trumpet for three months, but by the age of 11 she became one of the best performers in her elementary school (and in Nassau County). Her dentist forced her to quit trumpet due to her braces, but she was later able to convince her dentist to change his mind. She fought her way back into the junior high band and experienced much success throughout high school, becoming a top trumpeter in her District and County Bands and Jazz Bands, and participating in All State Wind Ensemble and NYS Summer School for the Arts. She suffered another setback in college, when her embouchure “gave out” and she couldn’t play. After studying with some of the best trumpet teachers in NYC, such as Vince Penzarella (NY Philharmonic), Mel Broiles, Ed Treutel, and Laurie Frink (Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra), she fixed the problems she was experiencing, gaining a greater understanding of brass embouchures and became an expert in fixing embouchure problems. Over the years, she studied various ways of producing sound efficiently and is known for helping students fix embouchure problems and for playing effectively with braces.

Links and Resources

Vincent Penzarella

Mel Broiles, Metropolitan Opera Principal Trumpet

Dr. Richard Sang at Queens College

Jimmy Heath, tenor sax

Michael Mossman, trumpet arr/composer at Queens College

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (affiliate link)

Ramit Sethi: I Will Teach You to Be Rich

Peter Boonshaft

Tim Lautzenheiser

Adam Exler

My episodes on Donna’s podcast:

Common Core: Good or Bad for Music Education?

Marketing: Do Music Teachers Really Need It?

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