Hi everybody, and welcome back to Season 3 of the Common Time podcast. We're so glad to have you here to continue bringing our conversations, insights, and inspiration for music educators everywhere. Each week, we'll highlight voices from across the music world and share ideas that you can bring directly into your classroom and to your ensembles. Before we begin our conversation today, however, it's time for our Standing Ovation, a new segment of our show where we shine a spot outlight on one of our incredible colleagues that is truly making a difference in the field. So this week we are recognizing David Urich from Rochester High School in Michigan. So Michelle Latoux shared that Dave has continuously worked hard to grow a strong and exciting program. We now have the largest marching band we've had since the early 2000's. The Wind Ensemble has been selected to perform at the Michigan Music Conference in January of 2026 and he makes all of his students feel welcome, heard and important. We know that in our profession it's not often that you get the spotlight, but we think you deserve one. So to Dave and to all the hard working music educators out there, this standing ovation is for you. If any of you have someone that you want to nominate for a standing ovation, the nomination form is linked below in our show notes. And now let's begin the episode. Welcome back everybody. This is our last episode of Season 3. Wow, has time flown, David, what do you think? It really has. I feel like we just started this and the semester is gone. Here we are, we're headed into the holidays and season 4 is just right around the corner. I'm excited and we'll talk about this later in the episode. We looked at some of our statistics about viewership and so forth. And it's really exciting to see that people are interested in not only the podcast, but what our guests are offering. So I'm really excited about Season 4. But you know, as I think about Season 3 and just the previous seasons, I'm continually grateful for people in our profession who are wanting to learn and share ideas and collaborate in a community environment that is safe and encouraging. Like it, this has been really inspiring for me this season. I'm just after every time we record an episode, I'm like, this is going to be great. And the response from our listeners is great. And it's just been, I don't know, I just think it's just really special. So.
Yeah, I do as well. It's really interesting for me when we, because sometimes we record something that's not going to be published for two months or something. But we have this really great conversation and I get hyped up about it and then it doesn't come out for like two months. So it's kind of a weird thing. I like, I wish it was just, sometimes I wish it were live. I'm glad it's not because we get to cut and paste. This would be a disaster if you have to like, you know, some change up sometimes.
Yeah, I think that's a great segue actually into our Ask the Host section. We did this season 2 wrap up. We're going to bring that back and there have been some listener questions that have come to us throughout the season. So I want to tackle two of those, but just for everyone that's out there, you can submit questions at any time through our social media channels. These are just some of the most popular. So I'm going to throw this to you, John. The question was what should a band director look for when choosing repertoire besides difficulty?
It's an excellent question. And I think back to the episodes with Randall Standridge and Michael Doherty, be sure to kind of check those out for their specific perspectives. But from hearing them and just from my own experience, I think that you as the teacher and the students have to be inspired by the pieces that you're playing. So yes, it's important to consider difficulty. It's important to consider technical demands and artistic expression and those kinds of things. How does it fit in the curriculum? And all those things are all very important, but I also think that the students need to be fired up and inspired to perform it. Is the music valid in the emotional space, like what makes art? I think that's really important. What do you think?
No, I think you're exactly right. I think the inspiration component is really important. I don't know if you've been in this situation where you played a piece of music that you really didn't enjoy and it just for six weeks, you're just beating a dead horse. I think sometimes we as directors, and I think I've mentioned this earlier in another episode, but I remember hearing Jerry Junkin say that in terms of choosing repertoire, every piece that you choose is electing not to play every other piece that's available, which makes the weight of that really important. So yes, we want it to be inspirational. But for me, there are some other boxes that I try to check. The difficulty one is just after I put everything together, then I look at difficulty like, is that piece going to fit with what the ensemble can do? But I don't look at that first. I actually, for me, I look at what am I trying to accomplish with this particular program? I just finished programming for a concert I'm doing next semester with UT Arlington and I put out several pieces that I thought I wanted to do that I thought would be inspiring for me. And I thought they would be inspiring for the individuals that I'm collaborating with as well. And it ended up coming full circle. I ended up trashing the whole thing because the piece that kept speaking to me was Symphonic Metamorphosis. And I listened to it and it just got in me, like I went back and looked at and listened to the original recordings, the piano pieces that it's from. And I was like, OK, I need to share this with these students. And I got really excited about it, but then I had to build a program around it. And I started thinking about what is that going to look like? And for me, I think it's just who I am, I kind of lean toward themes. And the title transformation kind of popped out for me, like the idea of transformation. And then that took a right turn, like not just transformation musically, but transformation as people, that music is continuing to evolve, we continue to evolve. This whole program came out of me getting really excited about this piece of music. So I'm hoping that I get to share that with these students as well, like that this concert is more than just a string of pieces together. And I've been to concerts where I felt like there's not really a through line for any of this. And for me that's important first. For others that may not be important. But for me, in terms of programming, I'm always trying to find some kind of connective tissue that I can weave together for the audience and for the players as well, if that makes any sense.
So important. And Symphonic Metamorphosis is one of my favorite pieces ever. It's such a cool piece. I played it when I was an undergraduate and I remember falling in love with just the sound. I've always loved Hindemith anyway, but the way he, and if you go back and listen to the originals, especially because it sounds like the themes are very much intact, but he changes the structure, the harmony, like the Beinum-Bumping was really a funeral march and you doubled the tempo and it's like, oh, this totally changes, this is so cool. Anyway, yeah, that's my answer. Question 2, let's move on. Yeah, why don't you take it?
Says how do I know whether going to grad school to study conducting is the right next step?
This is an excellent question, right, because I mean, we as college professors are asked this a lot, right? And for anybody listening, Doctor Sarah McCoy's episode that can be found on our streaming platform, she is masterful at explaining this as a director of bands at a major university. I think a lot about this one when students ask, or prospective students ask, right. And I feel passionately that students should get experience in the classroom before going to graduate school. I can't imagine a scenario where someone would go right from their undergraduate degree into a graduate program and get all of the content that needs to be understood to go to the advanced level. So I would suggest go teach first, then go to the symposia of the professors with whom you want to study and make sure that your personalities align, your priorities align. How does the program fit your needs? I mean, there are many options right across the world really. And so you have to go to a place that will inspire you, that's going to kick your butt, that's going to get you the best job possible, right? Because our job, right David, is twofold in a college setting. There are three options, the third one's not so good: best job possible, best graduate or next thing possible, unemployment, not great but possible. But so it's our job to prepare you for these two things. So how you do that I think is a really critical piece of the study, part of the preparation of exactly where you want to go right. So I want to go study with Professor Fettig at Michigan, I want to go study with Professor Sediviato at Michigan State, pick your place, or Sarah McCoy at Texas Tech and Emily Moss in New Mexico, fabulous, you know. But you have to know exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it, right? Just because you kind of feel like you should, unless you have a burning desire, I would suggest you not do it until you really want to do it, because you are going to have to kind of dive in at first. There is no way to only do partial right? Grad school is a lot of work compared to undergraduate.
I would say that first. So I know that there are people that have gone from undergraduate to graduate to doctorate very quickly, sometimes without space in between, and that are still successful. But I have to agree that from my experience, I went and taught for five years before I went back for my master's degree. And I think that five years was really important in helping me define what I was missing, what I didn't know, what I needed to know more about, like where were the gaps in my own knowledge? And that really helped having that five years that I was out teaching, like in the trenches, doing this, like I have to figure out like my flutes are out of tune, what do I do? And understanding how the flute works. And if I vent certain fingerings, that changes, like if they're playing a high E flat, there's nothing I can do, all the fingers are down. So now what do I do? Well, I have to change the direction of the airstream more into the tone hole. I didn't know all of that when I was an undergraduate, and when I graduated, I went into my next phase of learning, which was really figuring out these instruments and how to teach them and how to react to them. I've pulled up a score, I'm doing a piece of music coming up in an honor band and it's a score I haven't used in a long time. And I went, I'm looking at it going like, oh my God, I have marked in intonation tendencies on certain notes with options for finger changes to help them, which that's what I had to do back then. I didn't know, but I would go through, I'd look at like, OK, here are all the bad notes on that instrument and I'd go through the entire score and mark them with options so that in the moment if there was an issue, I had something to go to. I would not have known that, and I would have went into my master's degree and my master's degree, we didn't talk about any of that, nor should they really, as a master's in conducting, I'm talking about movement and how am I getting sound based on what I am doing. So I think it is important to have that time because you do learn those things that are going to transfer over the long term.
I also encourage people to consider this as a job and go in expecting to take advantage of every single opportunity provided to you. And by the way, that isn't just classroom instruction, that's going to budget meetings, that's going to talk to the dean, athletic director, pick just every aspect of the program, because what we're training people to do is to become directors of bands, athletic band directors, you know, all of that, which is great. And wherever you go, you're going to have so many opportunities. I love when our graduate students want to come with me to a donor meeting or a budget meeting or administrative meeting or pick your thing. Why? Because you're going to see behind the scenes in a way that you're going to be expected to navigate, first of all. And two, at a place where someone can guide you through those things from an instructor-instructee perspective. And you're not going to fail because you're just going to be there to observe, right? So I think it's important. And also just know you're going to work really hard. And sometimes people are surprised by the number of hours that it takes because remember, you're doing your job and then you're being a student simultaneously, right? And so it's important to do both and expect both.
Yeah, I got one more thing I want to just go over real quickly because this is a choice too, like some people go back to grad school to check a box for a little bit more money or maybe a principalship or something. And there's validity there. I'm not going to say anything about that. But in terms of the choices I made, and you may not choose this if you're a listener, but I chose to quit my job twice and go back to school. And that was an incredibly difficult thing to do knowing like I'm giving up my entire livelihood and I'm going to go make next to nothing as a graduate teaching assistant. And I'm going to be working my tail off while going to school, while studying. It's, I don't want you, if you're out there, to think oh it's too overwhelming, it's not. But I couldn't have had a full time job and gotten what I needed to out of graduate school. So for me, I had to be immersed in that full time. And not everybody does that. But I bring that back to, if I decided to quit my job, I need to be certain where I'm going is the right fit for me. And I remember when I was looking at schools, I had an email conversation with Mallory Thompson and she was top on my list. She didn't have an opening for another year and a half. And my timeline wasn't a year and a half. So I ended up shifting and I was looking, OK, what are other things that are important to me? One of the things that was missing in my background was collegiate marching band. I didn't have a Big 12, a Big 10, an SEC background. So if you'd put me in front of, like my first big job was the University of Kansas, I wouldn't have had any idea how to run that program, how to stand in front of that basketball band, had I not gone to the University of Oklahoma and been mentored by Brian Britt. So if you haven't listened to Brian's episode, he's on Common Time as well last season. But that was hugely impactful for me because it filled in a huge need for me that then propelled my career. So many things that we could talk about, that probably for another hour. But let's go to something a little lighter. John, are you going to Midwest?
I am and I am always so excited to hear the concerts and just to learn from people from all kinds of stages in their lives, all kinds of backgrounds. And I mean, that's the best part about going to Chicago and just being able to talk to each other and bounce ideas off each other, socialize, which is important. Networking is critical. And I'm excited about it. How about you?
I am. I haven't been in a while, but I am going this year. I'm looking forward to it. I just go for the big Christmas tree. Honestly, I just think it's, I love the Christmas tree in the Chicago Hilton, obviously. No, I think you're right. I love just, you know, it's one of those places you're walking down the hall and you see someone you haven't seen in a while and you just connect and you have an opportunity to, it just, the people part, you're right, it's just the people. The food obviously is pretty good. But I love seeing the people again, going to concerts and just seeing people in the profession, a couple of things, being successful and then also being eager learners. They're hungry to learn, they're there. It's pretty exciting for me. I'm looking forward to it and I'm taking my recorder this year. So there might be some pop up Common Time conversations. So if you're going to Midwest, I haven't decided if I'm going to wear my t-shirt or not because it's cold, but I've got to find some way to designate like, hey, I might walk up to you and say, what do you think about this? And then you're going to be on an episode next season. So it's going to be fun. I'm excited about it. Excellent. Yeah. What are the things you got going on?
You know, so we're going to be going to a bowl game, going to the Citrus Bowl to play the University of Texas. I think it should be announced here soon. And so really looking forward to that. And yeah, it's going to be a fun game. And I always love when our two schools get together with the quality of the band programs. And it's just it's a special thing for sure. And then my wonderful wife's birthday is at the end of the month. So we'll be celebrating that. And then just, you know, coming back for the new year, getting ready for the start of the semester. Yeah, so sounds good. You know it's coming up soon, right? So do you have any plans coming up?
Well, we're doing Christmas with family and then we're going to do New Year's in Nashville, which is we haven't done Nashville New Year's. So we're looking forward to that.
Music Capital.
It is, I don't know if it's the music capital of the world, but I think they say that.
They say that I mean.
So live, live music capital of the world's Austin, TX. Did you know? Austin, TX.
Is it now someone correctly like? Wrong on that, but I think that's true. In the classical world, would it be Vienna?
Vienna. I'd still argue that by far. Vienna. When I was teaching my national broad class there, that was such a cool time.
That's a cool class. I love that class. But yeah. You should bring that back. I enjoyed guest lecturing at that.
I should bring that back, going to concerts every day, museums every day.
The Music, Brian. Yeah, that's so good. Anyway.
Incredible, Google AI says Austin, TX. I knew it the Austin TX having that producers came from there. I was pretty sure that's awesome at the Carrie Taylor and Westlake high school go shops.
That's right. That's where I went to. I'm actually doing Honor Band in Austin coming up. I'm looking forward to it.
Me too. I'm actually, I'm doing Region 8, so that's in the kind of temple area, kind of Belton area.
Yeah, I'm on the South Region 18, so on the other side of Austin, but yeah. So John, what? Let's talk about the season just for a second, since we're kind of reflecting. We're wrapping it up. Final episode of season 3. Was there a particular moment that kind of changed your perspective or something you?
You know, it's always interesting for me. Thank you for the question. I don't know that it changed perspective, but every time I have the conversation, it invokes thoughts about different things like how can I be better, right? And it's about student engagement and experience. So when we talked to my student, Miguel Reddo and also Tim Watzenhiser, both, I mean, their episodes really made me think about student experience and how to ensure that the people are coming first, you know, from the Meister mind, David, your curriculum and pedagogy, which is brilliant. You talk about people first to process and that has fundamentally changed how I think about things. That's a whole separate conversation. Maybe we can do an episode on that. But specifically to answer the question about am I giving the students the best experience now, keeping in mind sometimes that means saying no to them. You know, that's true, you know. But however, how we get students to be engaged and inspired and be technically accurate and maximize artistry, that's how I approach every rehearsal. And as we learn from Miguel's episode, it does make a difference to students, you know, and I mean, they can really tell. And so that kind of jarred some things for me.
Yeah, I absolutely agree. I think, you know, the piece of advice that stuck with me, well, you mentioned this maestro mind, but you know, Doctor Tim's episode was, you know, the people connection is so important in what we do. It is. And for a long time I really struggled with music first. Like I believe music should be the first thing. I don't believe that anymore. I think it is an important thing, but the people is the first thing. And I'm appreciative that, you know, Doctor Tim was on for us that he actually has agreed to write the forward for the mastermind book. I'm pumped about that. But the idea of people in process is something that I think a lot of us get hung up on the process part. And there's a lot to process when we've talked about this in every episode we've had, like here are things that we need to know, things that we have to be better at, things that we're discovering. So the process is this continual, it never stops. But if that's ahead of the people, then why, what you know? So that's where it's kind of reframing that over the last several years has been really important for me. And I think that just hearing Doctor Tim again just sort of reinforce like that's what stuck with me maybe for the whole episode. We had 14 really great episodes, but I that one really did stick for me so.
You know, and that idea has permeated for me throughout the entire season, right? So like if I think about impactful episodes, I would argue this time around it was that theme within various episodes, like when we talked to David Leach of how to prepare certain teachers, right? And Lois Wiggins with beginners, you know, Robert and Robert Slayton for sure, and Randall Standridge, Colleen Conway, you know, it was all about the people. Now you have to have the subject matter, you have to have content expertise, you have to be able to deliver it in a way that people want to receive it right. But at the end of the day, we're dealing with people. It's the business of people. That's how every business kind of has a negative connotation, sometimes not at all. Our job is to inspire people through the venue, or, excuse me, through the medium of art.
Yeah. Right. Exactly. No, it's Yep, that's. I'm glad you put that together because I hadn't really thought about it as an overarching theme, but it is. It is like if we could say what was the thing that held Season 3 together, it was people first. Sure one knows. So I'm really curious what season 4 will bring. That'll be very interesting.
But it's going to be, from the guests we have lined up, it's going to be an outstanding season. You're going to want to check it out, everybody. All right, so our producers have given us a common times, common time awards section.
Awards. Adding we did not do this in season 2 wrap up. Do you have a sound effect here?
We do. Hold on, did you hear it? I can't wait. I've been wanting to add sound effects to the podcast for all three seasons and I've had the equipment to do it, but not the expertise to do it. And I was just playing with buttons just to watch out, here we go. This works and boom. So now I've got to add. I'm going to add laughter. I'm going to add applause. I'm crying, crying. Yeah, I'm. I cannot wait to do that. That's going to be fun. But anyway, so for our Common Time awards, yeah, hardest we laugh during a recording. Oh boy. Well, during the outtakes, probably a lot more than people see, right? But we have an upcoming holiday episode that we have recorded whenever y'all were up here in Ann Arbor for the Ohio State game, and we had a pretty good time doing that one.
That was a great one. There was plenty of laughter putting that together for sure. So then what was the most unexpected conversation? Or who's the like winner of the like most expected or unexpected conversation?
There's some good ones this season, you know, and a lot of the conversation happens kind of before or after. Sometimes I wish we had the camera rolling, but on camera I think Michael Doherty probably like he, the pop culture thing, which is you know his that's the foundation of a lot of his if not all of his compositional output. And he took, he will, he left the camera for a while like we cut this out for the listeners, but Michael Doherty, he left the building for 5-10 minutes and came back with the comic book that started it all. And it was that Superman comic book that led to the first, his first big hit, which is a Metropolis Symphony with Zim and I believe, and like it was really cool moment. Like I'm glad he did it, but at the moment it was unexpected I suppose.
It's like he just was like, I'm out, OK? And but thinking about it and when he came back and showed us that comic book, yeah, I instantly realized his entire catalog is based off of these things.
Exactly. Yeah, yeah, I teach you a little insight, like what's going on with his mind. Like I am doing a Niagara Falls next term and I'm so excited to go into the score again with the knowledge that we got from his conversation, right. Because it's always good to hear the perspective of a composer as you study their stuff, which is I think really important. So yeah, absolutely. So most unexpected conversation goes to Michael Doherty. Most transformational teaching reminder, John.
That was a good question because I could say something for everybody. But like for me, Colleen Conway's episode, she is a brilliant, brilliant music educator. I mean, brilliant. And I remember her encouragement to pursue continuing education as a mindset, not as a milestone. That's how she said it. I think that was an exact quote that is so important. And like, that one for me was like, I want every person, every teacher in every classroom to think about that. You know, I mean, now it's hard. I mean, I get it. You've got a lot to do, but pursuing continuing education as a mindset I think is only going to better your student experience, which is what it's all about.
Yeah, I think that aligns with we see lifelong learner. Like that's a hashtag we see on different things, but it is a mindset. I can type the hashtag all I want, but honestly, I have to have the mindset that I want to constantly be a sponge for information for those who are listening to our podcast. I think that is a part of being a lifelong learner. That Common Time podcast is offering that. But for us, it's the same like I walk away, you mentioned earlier, like we finished these episodes and sometimes my mind is racing with new ideas and things that I just learned. And we've both been doing this for a long time. And remember, our podcast is a form of that. It's turning out to be right? It was when we started, it was just a conversation about music, talking to Jerry and some other people, right? But now we've been getting quite a bit of feedback from teachers all over the world really saying, you know, thank you for this. This is, you know, helping things. And that's the goal of it all. Right. So the award for the most transformational teaching reminder goes, I think, for Professor Conway and her episode. Check it out. And so, all right, David, what would the award be for the most inspirational message?
Most inspirational message man, we had some really great conversations. I mean we started with Tim Watzenhiser and then David Leach. Lois was fantastic. David Starnes was great. Gosh, Robert Saladin, I was so, Robert's a former student of mine. I taught him in high school and he played principal Alto. I remember we played Cajun folk songs number one. Bom. Yeah, number one. So the first thing was being able to get a concert F in tune on the saxophone. Because that's so easy. FF and also to make that. 2nd that's not EFFEFF. You were saying that in your mind, weren't you? Yeah. So, you know, interesting, but bom, beep bom, making sure that second note had lengthened body to it. But he was principal and fantastic. I went on to grad school. He ended up at UT Austin, became drum major of the Longhorn band. And then taught in Leander, and I remember the amount of pressure that he was under during that time. He began dealing with that in a way that I think it was, well, I missed that word transformation. It was transformational for him. And his episode kind of brought that all back of he found a different way to define success. And part of that was finding balance with himself, with his program, with the people that he was working with. Like that was all his priority shifted. And it's for me, that message, it just kind of came back really as something I think we all struggle with. But he found a way. And for me, that was really inspirational. And it could have been maybe because he's a former student as well. But like, most inspirational for me was Robert Sullaton. So thank you, Robert.
So the award for the most inspirational message of Season 3 goes to Robert Sullaton.
Robert Sullaton. You gotta hit the button. Boom, hold on. Will you say it again so I can get the time and I will practice?
Again, so the award for the most inspirational message of Season 3 goes to Robert Sullaton. This is going to be so much fun. People are like, there's too many sound effects. That's going to be our feedback from Season 4, all right. So what's next? Moving on, what's next? It seems like music recommendations questions that our listeners have been asking us. So David, what is one piece that you've rediscovered?
Well, well, I mentioned it earlier, but it's the Symphony Metamorphosis. Excuse me. I hadn't listened to that piece in probably a decade, maybe longer. And then when I was working on that programming and that piece kind of popped in my head, the idea of change. And it actually came from another piece. It's called Object Metamorphosis by Christopher Biggs. And it was a piece that he was a composer at EMKC, which is where I did my doctorate and Steve Davis premiered the piece, I believe. And so I became aware of it because of my doctoral studies. And it's a piece that's based off of an artwork. It's like black modules is the title of the artwork. But it's these black modules that are placed on a wall. And depending on your perspective in the room, they, there's, I mean, to some degree they transform like you're seeing different things. And he wrote this piece, Object Metamorphosis, which is for wind ensemble and prerecorded electronic track. And it's a cool piece. I was like, you know, I'd really love to bring this to the students at UT Arlington. That's kind of a new experience of doing something with electronics. But also it's the compositional language, it's not tonal, it's not atonal, but it stretches you. And then that kind of brought me back to Object Metamorphosis, Symphonic Metamorphosis. And then I pulled it up on YouTube. The beauty of YouTube just to be able to pull up anything we want and watch people conduct and do different things. Like I fell in love again with this piece. And I was like, you know, I want to go back and listen to the piano like the actual source material from Karl Marion von Bieber. And I listened to that and I was like, done. This is it, this is the piece, this is what we're doing. And then the whole thing kind of went from there. But that piece rediscovering that then led me down to complete another wormhole with Hindemith's music. So and it's such good music and such a unique voice. Like there's just nobody like him. Like I guess Edgar Perez has a certain sound, it's the same like and like I played just trumpet Sonata as on my barrier jury in my undergrad. Like I love that piece in any case. I did the Tuba Sonata for my college entrance auditions for my undergraduates and I just love the piece.
All right, so how about this one? What one piece should every director know?
That's a tough one, isn't it? So this how I'll answer this one is going to answer the question from before to a piece that I have kind of rediscovered. Now, obviously when I say this, people are going to be like, you're just rediscovering this. What? Just go with me for a second. The host first suite is a piece that I haven't done it in a long time and I just rediscovered it when I was kind of listening. It just came up on a playlist and I'm like, it's such good music. And so I programmed it on a concert this term and now every honor band that I'm doing this upcoming cycle, I am programming it. And I got a note from a director saying thank you for playing music in addition to the other program that is, you know, modern and all and great. But he's like, thank you for bringing back the old War Horse. And you know, maybe I think we as directors, everyone should know the whole suites without question. But if you do and you haven't thought about it in a while, maybe take a look. As a great piece, I do love it. Yeah.
It's been awesome since I've connected it but it has. I know I haven't done it in so long. And the host Hammersmith is also good.
Hammersmith audition piece for my master's degree. Do you remember sitting in the room when I did that?
Yes, that's such a clear piece. Old Hammersmith. Good music. That may be my favorite of his. Really. I think it is. Yeah, I can see it. Like it's just the complexity. It's complex. Yeah, it's complex. By tonality and just, it's so different than the whole suite. It's different than the planets. Just such a unique piece. But yeah. All right, so then David, what's one piece that's been stuck in your head all season? Do you have one?
A piece that's been stuck in my head all season. Yeah, for me, it's easy. It's Baby Shark, that damn thing. I, I, I don't even have kids. How did he get there?
OK. I think we should just move on to that's that answer is enough. We should just move on. We probably should just stop talking and just end the episode. Now that's right. And his credibility is shot, that's great. You know, honestly, it's we've been talking for a while, so maybe we should wrap up to be honest with you. But before we do though, I would really like to express my gratitude to everyone that's listened to the people that have reached out, the people that share our podcast online and social media and so forth. The people that are just listening, that faithful listeners, we appreciate you so much. We're, at least for me, I'm so grateful that you are on this journey with us and for the music education community sort of in general. I'm very grateful for that. But really our listeners like just thank you so much for, for everything you are, you're, every time you hit the play button, it sends us a message that what we're doing is, is providing some bit of meaning for, for the community. And I'm immensely thankful for that and for the opportunity. And to coincide with that, I do want to express my appreciation for the music education community, for those of us that go in the trenches everyday, teach students, change their lives for the better, make art everyday, inspire students, inspire great music. Thank you so much for like, doing what you're doing because it is so important no matter what you hear on the news or whatever. What you're doing is so important, so thank you for that.
Yes, I also one last I am thankful for Teresa. And I for Jessica, for sure. I just wanted to get out there first, since you did in that other episode. I just wanted to.
You got it, I. Wanted to beat you to the punch you.
Got in trouble. So anyway, you know, before we wrap up though, I was talking with Teresa yesterday and she looked up some stats for the show and I was really blown away. So this is just from Spotify. We're we're only on three platforms at the moment, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. And those are kind of our three go to's. But the Spotify I think it grabs from I think it grabs from Apple and Spotify. So when Spotify, we were a 2025 rising star, we were 2025 marathon show and 2025 most shared show for the Spotify platform, which is pretty awesome.
That's incredible. Blown away by that.
We had 195% increase in total audience. We had 457% increased in new audience, 386% increase in listening time, 140% increase in followers. This is cool to me. Top countries US was #1 but then we have Germany, Italy, Canada and Switzerland as our other top.
Thank you to those people, by the way, thank you all. Over the globe. Thank you.
We were top 10% of all video podcasts on Spotify and then it looks like 48 listeners had common time as their number one podcast. That's awesome. So I like I'm, I'm going to say I'm grateful, but like looking at these numbers going like, wow, I'm, I'm actually very humbled that this is that you're, that people are listening and it's meaning, it's being meaningful for them. So. Thank you everybody.
That's incredible. How about that! All right, so, so let's all dive into this together for the upcoming season, for Season 4 and just kind of thinking, thinking forward. So we would like to invite you, our listeners to continue engaging with us by submitting Standing ovation nominations. David, how do you do that?
So the standing ovation nomination link is always in our show notes. So when you go listen, if you scroll down to the bottom, there's going to be a link in there. And it's just a, it's a simple form that you can submit, you know, a music educator, someone that's an inspirational teacher, share their story and it gives us an opportunity to evaluate those. And then the selected ones we, we announce in the beginning of one of our podcast. So it's a wonderful opportunity to show recognition. And I believe that the more we can recognize good teaching, the better.
And I wanted so that's shout it from. The shout it out before we close though. I would also recommend everyone that listens. We really do read these but we have a listener survey that's linked in our show notes as well. Especially if you go to the bottom of this episode specifically, it will be there. Please fill that out. There's an opportunity for you to provide feedback for us and for things that you might want to hear, you know, give us ideas. We're always listening and always looking for kind of the, the new stuff. And then if you want to submit a question or a topic, it's an opportunity to do that as well. So you can find us on social media, we're on Facebook, we're out there. Get in touch with us, send us a message. And if you have someone sent me a message this, it was probably 3 or 4 weeks ago, like, hey, I think this would be a great person. And they're on our list for next semester or for next season. So we're always taking that information. If you have questions, ideas, suggestions, please send them our way.
And then also too, I have gotten quite a few questions from our listeners about clinics or professional development sessions. So I don't know about you David, but I, I have a couple spots open for the 2627 years. So if I can be of assistance or if David can be of assistance, please contact us over e-mail could be better. You can find me through the University of Michigan School of Music site. And you know, David, but we are here to help you in any way. Like I, I, I can fly, do an honor band or just work with your students or I mean, however you want. And the, and the only reason why I actually bring this up is because we've been getting questions about this. So how about you, David?
No, I'm saying I'm available to help as much as anybody would like for my assistance. I will be there for you. It's one of the things I enjoy most. I think about this podcast is we, we're making ourselves available to, to help others in the journey that we're all on. And it's, it really is a journey for sure. And we do some things that were that are on our mind for the common time podcast. We've been throwing around the idea of having a common time collective. So a kind of a private group that would be specifically for that to, to have a resource, a community to join and be a part of in terms of learning and sharing information and getting in front of your ensembles and sharing recordings and listening to them. So we're, we're brainstorming that, but if you have some ideas you want to throw that our way, we would love to get your feedback on the idea of having a common time community. But a lot of ideas like that we're we're thinking about expanding starting with season 4. So just throw this out there if you if you like the.
Idea you like the reels, aren't we, David? We're thinking about doing reels. I don't even know what those are, but we're going to do them. John asked me before we got on this. Hey David, do you think we should do some reels? Because I was told to ask. I don't know what the hell that is.
That's so awesome. Yes, we're going to try to do more reels because we can provide information and probably some laughter if we do reels, especially John, he's our resident technology expert.
Dumbass. All right, well, friends, listeners, everyone out there, John, it's I have so much fun. Three, right, that's a wrap wrapping up three. I'm so excited to be to start on 4. But it's been a season 3 has been great. It's just been a, you know, continuation of one and two and three push it to the next level. So I can't wait to see what happens with four. Thanks everybody.
Thank you, Thank you, thank you. That's it for today's episode of the Common Time Podcast. And thank you for spending time with us. We hope that today's conversation will give you something useful to take back to your students and your program. And if you enjoyed this episode, make sure you subscribed so you don't miss what's coming up. And if you know another director who might benefit from this, please share it with them. Also, don't forget you're able to nominate a music educator for our Standing Ovation program. The link to submit is in the show notes below. Thanks again for joining us on the Common Time podcast. As always, keep making music and keep making a difference.