| I studied under Stephen Burns while doing my Masters at Indiana. He is one of my mentors, and means a great deal to me as a teacher and as a musician. He is also caring and involved, and takes his students very seriously.
As far as materials go, we dealt mainly with literature - solos, excerpts, and etudes. However, there was a great deal of Arban's stuff, Clarke, Schlossberg, Stamp, and various other "basics". Undergrads in his "dojo" obviously recieved a bigger dose of those sorts of things - especially at first.
He has definitely been greatly influenced by Pierre Thibaud, and thus encouraged all of us to not look at our technique as "limited". In other words, we were encouraged to keep stretching our own boundaries. Also, Vacchiano was very influential as evidenced in the admonition to play "bel canto", and the ass-kicking transposition work we had to do.
Lastly, Steve has a dynamic nature and a profound intellect. His influence on me regarding how I listen to music, how I view the world, and how I interact with others has been incredibly significant. Hope this helps.
Best wishes!
RW |