By Joelle Zigman
Upon reflection on my first blogging experience, I’ve come up with at least ten life lessons I’ve learned from the past six months of thrusting my opinions into the public.

By Joelle Zigman
I’m looking for a third professional path: one that accommodates the midbrow composer.

By Joelle Zigman
A massive shift in popular music towards creating intelligent art would lead to active listening on the part of consumers, and to long-term planning on the part of the music-writer.

By Joelle Zigman
I haven’t really been following the online debates about “alt” classical, which, from what I understand, have been heated, and wide ranging and possibly talked to death at this point; for me, it’s all about being organic—being honest about your core influences without being tacky or artificial.

By Joelle Zigman
With the dominant trends in American education being “standardized curriculum, rote memorization, and nationalized testing,” what is the best course of action for children’s music education?

By Joelle Zigman
UNDER St. Mark’s presented Gertrude Stein’s 10-15 minute nonsensical play, White Wines, five times, serving a glass of white wine to match each performance; by the end of show I felt like—possibly—there was a chance I might’ve actually understood what was going on.

BY Joelle Zigman
Break down the content of the music of major pop artists, major rappers, and indie/alternative rock bands into their percentages and see what they’re really made of (the instrumentation, the chord progressions, the melodic phrasing, the rhythmic variation, the virtuosity, etc.); then you’ll see just how diverse our “diversity” really is.

By Joelle Zigman
What distinguishes Berg, Wagner, and Berlioz from the dude with the guitar?

By Joelle Zigman
It’s become increasingly difficult to hang out with some of my closest friends from high school because they’re running low on free time; they’re busy working (waitressing, retail, babysitting), so that they can afford college.

By Joelle Zigman
Sometimes it’s not up to you to decide what good local is.