Ira Shankman (intro)
My name is Ira Shankman and I’m the coordinator of student teacher placement and lab field observations for the Music Education Department at New York University. I also coordinate the choral program at NYU, and I conduct the Jazz choir at New York University. I’ve come to NYU after many years as an educator in the New York City Department of Education. My last full-time job at the DoE was principal of a performing arts high school in Manhattan, by the name of Talent Unlimited. It’s a very special school, very special kids and it was a wonderful program. I am a musician, I am an educator and I believe that the two can get along very very well. I believe it’s so important for students to be able to have the chance to achieve, both academically, and creatively, and our motto, interestingly enough, at Talent Unlimited was “It ain’t just singing and dancing.” They did sing and dance. They sang and danced very well, but we knew that the academics were a very important part. I should say the other academics because the Arts are just as academic as any other subject students have to take. So, that was my field as a principal in education. I grew up in a family of not really musicians, my mother played piano, and played very well actually. My father aspired to it but after taking a few lessons he gave up. Although he could tap dance, he taught me the time steps and that was a lot of fun in terms of my growing up. I have a lot of cousins who are performing musicians and listening to them play, I said, “I could do that.” I started taking some piano lessons and that was the start of my musical career, playing piano.