AETHERPHON, global theremin family

Hello all,

I got to thinking about this recently, after reading some comments 
on-line, and I thought I'd tap you guys to see if you had any thoughts.

Who gives theremin lessons?  And who that give theremin lessons are 
worth spending the time on?

Lydia Kavina does, provided you can be where she is.  (Takeuchi-san had 
to move to Moscow and learn Russian...not very practical with a day 
job.)  Pamelia Kurstin used to.  Her web site still claims that she 
does.  No one I have communicated with indicate she even answers e-mails 
at the moment, so clearly she has too much stuff going on to be an 
option.  I have not personally inquired to Peter Pringle, but several 
people have indicated that he does not give lessons.

Takeuchi Masami might, but he's in Tokyo.  Again, not practical. 
Others, I have no idea.  But there have been enough comments out there 
of thereminists who are teaching others who have no business teaching 
that it would appear at least some demand exists but there's no way to 
judge the quality of the instruction.

Right now in the state of theremin performance education, it reminds me 
a great deal of the state of things in the early days of Neo-Pagan 
religions, from the 1950's through the 1980's.  All the early 
practitioners were self-taught or knew someone personally who was 
already a practitioner.  Many wrote books, and many of those books 
contradicted each other.  A handful of people were "known" but there 
were so few that there wasn't enough time to go around to teach everyone 
who desired instruction.  So the vast majority taught themselves, mostly 
from books, and those people went on themselves to write books and to 
teach others.  Now with a second generation of Neo-Pagans, there is 
beginning to be a critical mass of agreement on knowledge, content, and 
approach, and there are enough knowledgeable teachers to service those 
who desire to learn.

Are we at that point with the theremin?  There just aren't enough 
instructors to go around, and many of them contradict each other?  Peter 
Pringle once wrote that it was a grave mistake to attempt to pick and 
choose techniques among theremin playing, that it was important to 
select a "method", if you will, and stick with it.

What are your thoughts on this topic?
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DAVID VESEL -- synthetic music for humans
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