Chiao-Ti, Liu's Pathway Portfolio Site

Professional References

Below are the details of my professional references

Dr. Linda Apple Monson

Managing Director, School of Music | Director of Keyboard Studies

e-mail: lmonson@gmu.edu

Dr. Yoonji Kim

Keyboard Skills; Piano

e-mail: ykimh@gmu.edu

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Statement of Purpose

I started to play piano when I was five years old and began playing clarinet when I participated in the ensemble in elementary school at the age of ten. Gradually, what I felt for music is no longer simply an interest. Music has already played a very important role in my life. The graduation concert in my 9th grade year was a crucial turning point for me in the path of learning professional music. That was the first time that I got rid of my nervous emotions to enjoy the stage and enjoy the performance. The last year in university, I held my first recital, which displayed my achievements in learning music for years and realized my long-term dream. I know I was too late to be a piano performer, however, I totally understand that music is special and magical for me. Therefore, I decided to study music education in my Master’s degree. The MS in music education will allow me achieve my goal of being a music teacher.

During my high school days, I not only participated in the school chorus and wind ensemble, but also performed with the members in various places in Taiwan, for instance, the National Concert Hall and Taipei Zhongshan Hall. After going to university, besides learning piano performance, I also took the courses of Double Pianos, Score Reading, Piano Literature, etc. I am grateful to meet professors who are good at both performance and teaching in the path of learning professional music. The professors let me know that besides reinforcing skills, it’s even more necessary for a performer to nurture music aesthetics for enriching the denotation of music.

I started to serve as a part-time piano tutor during my undergraduate days. Teaching is like a mirror which could actually let me see the blind spot of my performance and comprehension for reflecting on it and making modifications. In teaching children, it’s necessary to use the language and method that they understand. For instance, when teaching them about time counting, you could not only tell them the count of beats, but guide them with games or what’s most popular at the time, This could not only make it easier for them to enjoy in it, but also cultivate my creativity and patience. I also found that playing well is unequal to teaching well. Thus, I need to learn more teaching skills and take different experience in my graduate degree.

I am an international student; therefore, English is not my native language. The pathway program helped me prepare to start my program not only for my major classes, but also for my English academic writing skills. In the pathway program, one of the English class is call EAP 506. In this class, we focused on how to write an academic writing of graduate level and we read a lot of articles and wrote a summary to each article. Academic writing is really different than independent writing. When we do some research and cited the source for our discipline, how to avoid plagiarism references is a very important issue. We need to paraphrase and to explain the idea clearly with our own words, and make a reference list in the end of this paper. Although in my field, we do not read or write a lot of essay compare with another discipline, we still need to write some academic papers. This class would help me to really understand how to write a professional academic writing and confident of entering a graduate degree. I took few review classes in my major class, such as, music theory. Although I knew all the rules of music theory, language is the difficult part for me. However, by this class, I learned all the proper nouns of music theory, and it will help me transition into the graduate degree more smoothly.

George Mason is in the FairFax city. Although it is not a modern city, fortunately, the location is near by Washington DC. I can focus on my academic program, also if I want to enjoy the weekend or holiday, I can take a metro or bus to DC. On the other hand, George Mason has a complete music education program and they also has psychology classes. My piano professor is Dr. Linda Apple Monson. She is an awesome and wonderful professor, and I learned a lot of thing from her. She not only gives the piano skills, but also the good attitude in this field. I am so appreciative to be her student. Therefore, I choose Master of Music Education in George Mason University.

I have a deep interest in psychology and human behavior. For my music education program, it has music psychology class, and I will take some psychology classes to help my achievement. Everyone is different, we have different backgrounds, personalities and so on. These days, there are more special children than before, these children have autism or have ADHD. Most of them need to take a lot of medicines to control the illness, and also they do not know how to take care of themselves; however, they still have to survive in this world. For their family, it is a heavy responsibility and a major worry in their life. Music is a natural thing in the world. Therefore, music can help these special children or adults reduce the need to take medicines. I want to be a teacher and teach music to these special kids in the future.

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