Musician and Librarian Laurel Diskin Prepares to Lead an Upcoming Recorder Workshop at the Grandview Library

Laurel Diskin recalls the exact moment when her interest in music was sparked.  

She was nine years old and walking the halls of her elementary school, when she spotted an “incredibly tall, graceful young girl, who must have been no more than twelve at the time, carrying a case”.  The case, as she later found out, contained a flute, which belonged to the Mount Washington Elementary School Orchestra.  

Laurel asked to join the orchestra and wanted to play the flute, but due to a flute shortage and a twist of fate, she was handed a violin. Laurel embraced her new instrument, and while many of her peers quickly took up and then dropped music as a hobby, she continued. Her musical journey progressed through high school and college, where she double majored in Music and Spanish at California State University, Los Angeles. She went on to attain an M.M. in Music (Violin Performance) and a teaching credential in Spanish at CSULA, and eventually earned a Master’s in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University.  

Like many other musicians, Laurel originally aspired to a full-time playing position with a professional orchestra, but the high number of talented people in the music industry, the low number of full-time playing jobs, and the generally unpredictable nature of freelance creative work all convinced her to pursue a more stable and balanced life by combining librarianship with performing and teaching music.  

To Laurel, music, teaching, and librarianship are in many ways intertwined. She describes librarianship as “the purest form of teaching. A lot of what we do is teaching critical thinking skills, showing people good sources of information, and assisting them in powerful and meaningful ways”. In 2020, when the pandemic was at its peak, the doors to public libraries and schools closed. Teachers and librarians alike found themselves reassessing their roles and figuring out ways to survive, and for a lot of information and education professionals, that meant going digital.  

In 2021, Glendale libraries were open to the public but operating at a limited capacity. Services such as curbside pickup were massively popular, and programming was completely virtual. The GLAC MakerSpace hosted an online month of programming in March for MakerMonth, and as part of that initiative, Laurel led two online recorder workshops via Zoom. The workshops were family events created with the idea of bringing people together during an isolating time to rediscover the joy of music.  

Teaching music online gave Laurel the tools she needed to lead the recorder workshop and it was also what inspired her to travel abroad to Ireland. Since May of 2020, Laurel has worked with Fiddle Quest, an online curriculum/training program that gives teachers the resources and experience to confidently provide traditional music instruction completely by ear. In July of 2022, a small group of core Fiddle Quest team members, parents, advanced Fiddle Quest students, and teachers (including Laurel) were finally able to meet in person and fulfill the vision of playing traditional Irish fiddle music in Ireland. They studied with local teachers, explored the west coast of the country, and played outdoors whenever the weather allowed.  

Fresh from her trip to Ireland, Laurel is excited to bring the recorder workshop back, this time in person. The workshop will be offered three times over the next three months. The first recorder workshop will take place at: 

The Grandview Library on September 12, 2022, at 3:30 PM. 
Registration is required and space is limited.  
This program is open to tweens and early elementary aged children. 
All participants will receive a free recorder, fingering chart, and songs to keep.  
For more information or to register, please visit this link or call the Grandview Library at 818-548-2049. 

Look for Laurel at Glendale Library, Arts and Culture where she works as a part-time Librarian and Literacy Center Instructor. When Laurel is not at the library, you can find her jamming out with local ensembles like the Culver City Symphony, the Whittier Regional Symphony, the Norvall String Quartet, and the band Ollin (Dirty Old Town).