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🗓 January 8, 2027 @9:30am📍 West Michigan Piano, 3600 29th St SE, Grand Rapids
⭐️ Attention, Neurodiversity, and the Transformative Power of Music Teaching, Dr. Derek Polischuk
➡️ https://ptfgr.org/monthly-programs
🎶 Program Description:
This presentation looks at what young people are carrying into our studios today — fractured attention, neurodiverse ways of processing the world, the pressures of their socioeconomic realities, and a deep need for connection. Drawing on the ideas I explore in my book, Transformational Piano Teaching, I’ll reflect on how music study can become a stabilizing, humanizing force in their lives.
We’ll consider how teachers can help students slow down, pay attention, and encounter beauty in ways that shape who they are becoming — not only as musicians but as people. I will argue that music educators are uniquely positioned to advocate for students’ dignity, belonging, and spiritual connectedness, and that our work has meaningful social impact. At its core, this session is about how music teaching can help students grow into more grounded, compassionate, and fully alive human beings.
Bio:
Derek Kealii Polischuk is professor of piano and director of piano pedagogy at Michigan State University. A pianist, author, and advocate for inclusive music learning, he founded Celebrating the Spectrum, a festival for advanced pianists on the autism spectrum, and wrote Transformational Piano Teaching, a work centered on belonging, access, and the emotional lives of learners. His teaching and research explore attention, neurodiversity, and the ways music study helps young people cultivate presence, sensitivity, and deeper human connection.
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Event venue
West Michigan Piano, 3600 29th St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49512-1812, United States
Tickets
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