Putting the Empathy in Innovation: Grants Recipients Build Student Confidence, Connection ...

"When your peers are staring at you, waiting for instruction, it makes it hard to want to experiment, or create the sense of dynamism or play that brings music to life."

So says James Spinazzola, an associate professor of music at Cornell University who's been awarded a $280,000 grant from the university's Center for Teaching Innovation to use virtual reality to help students learn the art of conducting an ensemble, the Cornell Daily Sun reports.

With the help of virtual reality headsets and software, Spinazzola is able to give students a sense of what it's like to conduct an ensemble in real time.

"It's very hard' it's unnerving,'" Spinazzola says.

"They have specific gestures and motions that they have to practice and they initially have no concept of how it looks or how it can be received by a musician.

They kind of get the motion at first, but they have no point of reference as to how it can be received by a musician."

With the help of virtual reality, Spinazzola is able to give students a sense of what it's like to conduct an ensemble before standing in front of their peers to conduct and conduct an ensemble in real time.

It's all about building

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