Steven Brundage wins MTNA’s Article of the Year Award

The Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) has awarded University of South Carolina D.M.A. piano pedagogy candidate Steven Brundage the American Music Teacher magazine’s Article of the Year Award for 2015. He will be recognized for this top-level honor at the 2016 national conference in San Antonio, Texas, and in the American Music Teacher magazine.

“’The Art of Possibility’ seeks to make sense of talent in music teaching and learning by examining Malcolm Gladwell’s well-known ‘10,000-Hour Rule’ [that states natural ability requires a huge investment of time in order to be made manifest] and by exploring current and historical research by psychologists John B. Watson and Carol Dweck, philosophers Francis Galton and John Locke, and bestselling authors Matthew Syed and Daniel Coyle, among others,” said Brundage. “The article questions whether greatness is truly the result of unique genetics or unique upbringings, what value rests in the '10,000-Hour Rule,' why we equate genius with precocity, what role innate intelligence plays in the development of expert skill, and ultimately, what is the real key to musical success?”

Tayloe Harding, USC School of Music dean, said, "The School of Music is suitably proud of its nationally distinctive doctoral program in Piano Pedagogy, and even prouder of its outstanding graduates like Steven Brundage.  Mr. Brundage’s recognition by MTNA for the fantastic exploration contained in his “The Art of Possibility" is a singular honor for him and we look forward to the significant contributions to the discipline his future is destined to feature."

The American Music Teacher Article of the Year Award recognizes outstanding contributions to MTNA's professional journal. The 12 members of the magazine’s editorial committee select an article from those written expressly for AMT and printed during a calendar year. Articles are judged on the basis of the quality of writing and relative importance of the subject matter.