“This is not a film about me, nor about James, Sofia and I, nor about Orff Schulwerk, nor about music teachers. It’s a film about us—all of us, young or old, teacher, student or other profession, American or Brazilian or Icelandic or Korean. The whole carnival of human possibility gathered in a couple of acres on Gaven Street, but singing out and holding hands with everyone and everywhere.”
TED TALK: Why Music Matters
“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” (E.B. White).
Early on in my adult life, I was convinced that the world is a mess that needs fixing. But I also sensed that life is short, that miracles and beauty abound and that we would do well to pay attention to them. In a stroke of good fortune, I stumbled on a life that allowed both to happen at once. Teaching music at The San Francisco School with children between three and 14 years old guaranteed a fair share of miracles and beauty. The sense that happy children playing, imagining, thinking and creating might help a bit with that improving-the-world side of things made it easy to plan my day. Alongside my 45 years at The San Francisco School is a parallel life of traveling and teaching the Orff approach to music education—some 50 countries to date banging on xylophones and slapping our bodies.
Orff Workshops
-
March 2024
March 15-24, 2024
Jazz Course
Austin Peavey University
Clarksville, Tennessee—
March 30, 2024
Vietnam Hybrid Zoom Orff workshop
Contact: info@viae.edu.vn
-
April 2024
April 1-19, 2024
Guest Resident Teacher
Havergal School
Toronto OntarioContact: rread@havergal.on.ca
—
April 14, 2024
Toronto Orff workshop
Toronto, Canadacontact: AQcoordinator@rcmusic.ca
-
May 2024
-
June 2024
-
July 2024
-
October 2024
Doug’s Books
Check out Doug’s latest, Jazz, Joy, and Justice!
Doug did an interview about JJ&J for the Spotlight Network.
Pentatonics
Doug Goodkin & the Pentatonics are dedicated to bringing quality jazz performance and education to people of all ages. With the primary goal of introducing children to jazz music and teaching them so they fall in love with it, the Pentatonics have put on interactive musical workshops at SFJAZZ and the Stanford Jazz Festival, as well as other venues throughout the Bay Area.