I believe, first of all, that a strong music education includes both a critical, independent intellectual engagement with the musical material and a practical, personal engagement with how it sounds or feels as it is played. My teaching philosophy does not emphasize rules or formulae, but rather a sensitivity to whether the ear is convinced by whatever music is being studied. Difficult analytical problems in the music repertoire, especially those without clear answers, are to be critically examined and engaged as part and parcel of being an academic musician, in the same way that I examine difficult spiritual questions as essential to growth as a follower of Christ.

I can no more reduce my personal walk with Christ to a series of rules and regulations than I can reduce the richness and complexity of the many classical and contemporary musical traditions to a set of exercises done by rote.  Both are lifetime pursuits that involve knowledge gained by long study and skill gained by daily practice.