Past Workshops

African American Folk Songs in the Classroom with Betty Hillman
September 10th, 9 AM - 12 PM

African American Folk Songs in the Classroom is a participatory workshop with the audience being asked to participate with clapping, singing, movement and, at one point, creating rap verses.

Betty Hillmon is a cellist, a former student of Aldo Parisot, a former member of the Quincy Symphony Orchestra and a current member of the Me/2 orchestra.

Previously, Ms. Hillmon served as the Department Head of Music at The Park School in Brookline, MA prior to her retirement. She earned a BA in Music from San Jose State University, an MA in Music Performance (Cello) from Fresno State University (Cello), and an MA in Musicology from Harvard University. Additionally, she was awarded a Kodály Music Education Certificate from the Liszt Academy (Budapest, Hungary), an Advanced Kodály Studies Certificate from the Kodály Musical Training Institute (Wellesley, MA). She also received National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship to Study Music Education in Hungary and Summer Teacher Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Ms. Hillmon is also the founder/director of the Boston City-Wide String Orchestra, a community group open to all who play a stringed instrument, love music making, and are willing to commit to regular rehearsals and practice sessions.

Moving, Grooving, Drumming, Creating!

James Allen
October 1st, 9 AM - 1 PM

Come explore new techniques and grooves on the frame drum and tubanos while we challenge ourselves with improvisation, composition and movement activities.

James Allen, a lifelong percussionist, is in his 24th year teaching general music to grades kindergarten through fifth grade at Ox Ridge School in Darien, Connecticut.He completed Orff level II training in Portland, Oregon this past summer and will be finishing his certification this summer in Portland. He is the treasurer of the Connecticut Orff chapter. James created both a unit on frame drumming and presented a webinar for Musicplay.com. He presents workshops to Orff chapters and school districts and for music ed students. James was a featured presenter at the AOSA National Conference in Charleston, South Carolina this past year. Recently James wrote an article on the application of the frame drum in the elementary school classroom for Reverberations, the AOSA online publication. A regular gigging musician with five national tours under his belt, James performs in Middle Eastern, jazz, classical, rock, folk and musical theater settings. James obtained a BFA in music performance from SUNY Purchase, an MM from Yale and a teacher certification from CCSU.

Choral Workshop: Developing the Confident Musician!

Dena Byers
October 15th, 9 AM - 1 PM

How do we develop confidence in our musicians? Participants will explore tools to develop young musicians through activities which inspire compassion, courage and confidence.

Dena Byers currently teaches at Hillandale Elementary School and serves as the lead elementary music teacher. She has taught for Durham Public Schools since 1997. She is a National Board Certified and has been honored by being a top four finalist for District Teacher of the Year and receiving the NC Symphony’s Jackson Pankhurst Award for Special Achievement in music education. She is also the Artistic Director for the Durham Children’s Choir (DCC), has been with the organization since its’ founding in 2004. An active member of the American Choral Directors Association and the American Orff-Schulwerk Association, Mrs. Byers has been a guest conductor for a All-State Honors Choirs in MS and TN as well as District All-County Choirs in NC, GA, FL and AL. She has presented workshops for Orff Schulwerk chapters throughout the US and at National AOSA Professional Development Conferences. Dena is an AOSA approved Teacher Educator and currently teaches Level II Orff Schulwerk at the University of Memphis. She received BA degrees in Music Education and Vocal Performance from the University of Connecticut, a Masters of Music from the University of Minnesota and holds Level III and Master Level Orff Schulwerk Certifications from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and the University of Memphis, respectively.

Incorporating Africentric Music Education into Your Practice

Dr. Sonya White Hope
November 5th, 9 AM - 12 PM EDT

This online workshop will engage participants through personal reflection, small group collaboration, and full-group discussions. Participants will have opportunities to view video examples of Africentric music education, examine Africentric music education methods and materials, and journal. A bibliography of suggested sources for further reading will also be provided.

Violist, Teacher, and Researcher. Dr. Sonya White Hope has been teaching strings and related music courses in the Boston Public Schools since 1992. Dr. White Hope is the co-founder of the nonprofit SankofaSongs and co-director of SankofaSongs Summer Institute. As a self-proclaimed Africentric music educator, Dr. White Hope engages scholarship on arts education as cultural emancipation philosophy and examines topics at the intersection of music/arts education, Africa-descended peoples, and the arts of the African Diaspora. White Hope is especially interested in exploring and adapting Africentric methods in order to achieve an effective, nuanced approach to learning, teaching, and studying American music.

When she isn’t teaching, performing, or researching, Dr. White Hope enjoys making all sorts of art, cycling, and swimming.

Culturally Responsive Teaching: Beyond Repertoire
with Loneka Battiste
September 18, 2021, 9 AM - 12 PM EDT

Presented online in collaboration with Rhode Island Music Education Association

This workshop will equip teachers to begin or further their journey of culturally responsive teaching. We will begin the workshop with a look at the foundations of culturally responsive pedagogy and its importance. Teachers will reflect on their music classrooms in relation to principles of CRP. In the second part of this workshop, we will explore intersectionality and positionally related to music teaching and learning. Finally, the presenter will share real life examples of culturally responsive teaching in action. Online workshops will be available asynchronously for 30 days after they are presented.

Loneka Battiste is Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Drawing on 12 years of experience teaching children in school and community settings, she now teaches elementary general and middle school choral methods and graduate courses in music education. She has presented several papers and sessions at local, national, and international conferences and symposia and is a frequent clinician and guest conductor for elementary, middle school, and community choirs. As a former member of the Moses Hogan Chorale and the Moses Hogan Singers, she completed her dissertation entitled “ ‘Music Down in My Soul’: Achieving a Sound Ideal for Moses Hogan Spirituals” in 2014. Her work has been published in the Choral Journal and the Proceedings of the International Society for Music Education.She currently serves as Music Education Representative for the Southern Region of the College Music Society and on the Council for the Tennessee Music Education Association as the Society for Music Teacher Education Representative and Research Chair. She has also served in various leadership positions in the Society for Ethnomusicology, including Co-Chair of the Education Section, Co-Chair of the Crossroads Section, and Co-Chair of the Gertrude Robinson Network of Scholars.

Loneka’s scholarly interests in music education include equity and inclusion, multicultural  education, and culturally responsive teaching. She frequently presents on the artistic style of Moses Hogan, African American music aesthetics, and various musics of the African diaspora. In 2019, she completed a Fulbright Fellowship at Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE) in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil and studied coco, a musical tradition of the Brazilian northeast, in the Xambá community of Olinda, Pernambuco, Brazil. While in Brazil, she gave lectures on African American musics and formed a gospel choir at UFPE. She also gave lectures on culturally responsive teaching at UFPE, Universidade Federal de Paraiba, and Artefatos da Cultura Negra in Ceará. Her relationship with UFPE and the Xambá community is ongoing. Through the University of Tennessee’s Global Catalyst Award, she is building a teaching and research exchange program between UFPE, the Xambá community, and the university’s music education program.

Her current research addresses the history of African American music education and the training of African American music teachers. She serves as Minister of Music at Metropolitan Community Church of Knoxville.

SongWorks: Playful Teaching, Vibrant Learning
with Molly Feigal & Lisa Schoen
October 2, 2021, 9 AM - 12 PM EDT

Presented online

This workshop offers opportunities to explore the principles and practices of the SongWorks approach to teaching music. Participants will engage in vibrant learning experiences as we sing, play, and move together. Using bridge notation strategies for studying rhythm, melody, and form, we will discover ways to guide students in developing their musicality, responsiveness, and literacy skills. Online workshops will be available asynchronously for 30 days after they are presented.

Molly Feigal, a member of the SongWorks Certification Summer Course Faculty, has 17 years experience teaching elementary music in Woodbury, Minnesota. She has been an adjunct professor at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, and holds a Master of Arts and Education from St. Catherine University. Molly worked twice with NPO SMILE in Japan, teaching English folk songs to children. She spent over 20 years with Concordia Language Villages French Voyageur, an outdoor language immersion camp. In 2012, Molly was named a Fleurette Sweeney Emerging Pioneer in Music Education.'

Lisa Schoen, a member of the SongWorks Certification Summer Course Faculty, has been teaching K-5 music for 19 years at Deerwood Elementary School in Eagan, Minnesota. She earned her undergraduate degree at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, and her Master’s Degree at Concordia University in St. Paul. In 2014, Lisa was named a Fleurette Sweeney Emerging Pioneer in Music Education, and she is currently serving as the Immediate Past President of the SongWorks Educators Association.

Sing, Say, Dance and Play in a Culturally Relevant Way
with Manju Durairaj
October 23, 2021, 10 AM - 12 PM EDT

Presented online in collaboration with the New England Chapter of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association

This workshop focuses on cultural relevance, aspects of culturally responsive teaching, multiculturalism and social justice education in the general music classroom. Students can collaborate and create together, using protocols defined for culturally responsive classrooms. Multiculturalism celebrates diversity and centers around creating positive social interactions across differences. Culturally Responsive teaching centers around affective and cognitive aspects of teaching and learning and makes intentional and deliberate differentiations to instruction that tailor learning to aspects of the student’s culture. Social Justice education creates lenses to recognize and interrupt inequitable patterns and practices in society. Online workshops will be available asynchronously for 30 days after they are presented.

Manju Durairaj was born and raised in India. She studied in Pune, India. She was involved in  graduate research projects on comparative pedagogical practices of Indian (Carnatic) and  Western Music at Middlesex University, London, UK. She graduated with her second master’s  degree and K-12 certification from VanderCook College of Music, Chicago.  

Manju is the Lower School Music Teacher at the Latin School of Chicago. She is vice president  elect DEI of AOSA, past president of the Greater Chicago Orff Chapter and is a certified Orff Schulwerk Levels Instructor. She is a certified Arts Integration specialist. She is on the  Elementary General Music Council of IL Music Education Association. She is an adjunct  professor at VanderCook College of Music, Chicago where she teaches curriculum design and  elementary methods graduate and undergraduate courses. Her continuing teaching education  courses, on campus and online, include Culturally Responsive Music Education, Technology,  Arts Integration, Curriculum Development, Responsive Classroom, and Redesigning Teaching  and Learning for 21st Century. 

She is a frequent clinician at various state, national, and international conferences. She has  been published in the Orff Echo, Reverberations, Illinois Music Educators Journal, General  Music Today, and the Journal of the Council for Research in Music Education. Her publications  with Hal Leonard include InterAct with Music Assessment Levels 1 and 2, InterAct Levels 1&2  Student Activities for Devices and Print, Technology in Today’s Music Classroom and Dancing  Around the World with Music Express Magazine.

Exploring Choral Repertoire
with Beth Anne Young and Tianxu Zhou
November 13, 2021, 9 AM - 1 PM EST

In-person at the East Somerville Community School in Somerville, MA

Where Do I Begin:  Strategies for Teaching and Choosing Repertoire For Your Emerging Choral Singers with Beth Anne Young

Participants will explore the vast repertoire for their upper elementary and middle school  choral singers.   They will learn about Kodaly-inspired strategies in a  choral setting that will enhance the musicianship of their singers.   We will discuss choral score analysis, and how that analysis can focus your long term planning and enhance your daily rehearsal plans.   

Exploration of Chinese Choral Repertoire with Tianxu Zhou

This presentation will focus on pronunciation, cultural background and outstanding repertoire for Chinese choral singing. Through the presentation, participants will have a thorough understanding of the Chinese phonetic system(pinyin) and will be able to apply it to a few seminal Chinese choral selections. Furthermore, the presentation will also include discussions of cultural background and the origin of each musical selection.

Beth Anne Young is a Choral and Classroom Music Specialist. Recently  retired from the public  schools,  she was  a middle school choral and classroom music specialist for the majority of her teaching career.   Mrs. Young has recently joined the Faculty at the Longy School of Music as a Choral Methods Instructor in the Master of Music Education Program.   Mrs. Young is the Director and Choral Studies Instructor for the Kodaly Levels Program at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA .   She has a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA and a Master of Music in Music Education from the University of Connecticut with an emphasis in Choral Conducting. She completed both her Orff and Kodaly Certification at George Mason University. Mrs. Young has presented workshops about the Kodaly-Inspired Choral Setting at MMEA, and a Regional and National OAKE Conferences.  

Dr. Tianxu Zhou, originally from Beijing, is a choral conductor, collegiate vocal professor and international performer throughout Northern America, Asia and Europe. Dr. Zhou is the director of the choral programs at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Tabor Academy. He is also the director of The South Coast Children’s Chorus.

The conducting credits of Dr. Zhou also include: the Rhode Island College Mens’ Chorus, the Loudoun Chorale, the Sippican Choral Society as well as the conductor of the Beijing Community Choir.  Dr. Zhou is a sought-after clinician and guest conductor where he has directed the Tri-County Choral Festival in Southeastern Massachusetts and the South East Massachusetts MMEA District Junior Chorus.  Recent choral performances include collaborations with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra of Handel’s Messiah and with Grammy award winning artist Paul Winter on  his composition Missa Gaia.  Dr. Zhou’s presentation on Chinese chorale repertoire and pronunciation was featured at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Eastern Division Conference in Boston, MA. Also his lecture series of “Vocal Training in Choral Ensembles” was featured at the Beijing Education Department and Shao Guang Choral Conservatory in Beijing in 2019. 

As a singer, Dr. Zhou is featured in concerts and operatic productions both here and abroad.  He performed with many opera companies such as the Washington National Opera where he shared the stage with world-renowned artists such as Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras.  He has also performed as a soloist with high caliber ensembles including the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, the Maryland Symphony and the Grammy award winning Washington Chorus. 

¡Canta Conmigo! Children’s Music from Central America
with Dr. Rachel Gibson
September 12, 2020

Presented online in collaboration with Rhode Island Music Education Association

Come sing, play, move, create, and experience joy with living music traditions from Central America. Participants will engage in repertoire that the presenter recently learned while living in Guatemala and Nicaragua. The music was collected from playgrounds, classrooms, and families, and represents diverse practices that span from traditional songs and singing games to contemporary children’s music that utilizes recorded media. The activities allow for musical play and movement, encourage lyrical improvisation, and foster community. The Spanish texts are accessible to learn and field videos will be shown to demonstrate the songs’ authentic contexts. Strategies for integrating the collection into Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Pedagogies will also be discussed. ¡Ven a cantar y jugar! Come sing and play! 

Dr. Rachel Gibson is a Professor of Music at Westfield State University in Massachusetts where she is the coordinator of music education and a specialist in early childhood and elementary music. She is an active clinician at the state and national levels and leads workshops on a variety of topics including music literacy games and activities, world music, and folk dancing traditions. Her research interests include children’s music in Central America and has recently completed a ten-month residency in Guatemala and Nicaragua where she engaged in folk song collection and language study. Her upcoming publication, ¡Canta Conmigo! Songs and Singing Games from Guatemala and Nicaragua, will be published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Gibson has trained in the Orff and Kodály approaches and is on summer faculty at the University of Montevallo Kodály Institute in Alabama. Prior to her current position, she taught K-6 music and chorus for 15 years in New York, Connecticut, and Washington State.

ConClave - Remote Teaching and Learning Strategies for Multicultural Percussion
with Marcus Santos
October 3, 2020, 9:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Virtual

Join us for an interactive workshop highlighting a common rhythmic pattern used in Brazil, Ghana, Cuba and the United States. We will explore Samba Reggae, Kpanlogo, Cha-cha-cha and Second Line rhythms, as well as traditional percussion instruments from each country and their role in the percussion ensemble. Useful remote teaching strategies for percussion ensembles will also be featured.  If possible, please have a hand drum, pair of sticks and a drum pad, or be ready to use body percussion alternatives! Follow-Up Discussion: Tuesday, October 6th, 7:00 - 8:00 PM hosted by BAKE At-Large Board Member Kristin Stier.

A contemporary percussionist and educator, Marcus, is a native of Bahia, Brazil. He commits his life to the study, teaching and performance of his hometown's Afro-Brazilian music and heritage.

Marcus performed with several world renown artists such as the Gypsy Kings (Spain), Daniela Mercury (Brazil) and the Brand New Heavies (England). He has also performed for the president of Brazil, TEDx and with the “One World Band” produced by MTV. Marcus also played at the Sony Pictures Oscar nominated movie ‘Rachel's getting Married’ with Anne Hathaway. He has been honored with the 2013 KOSA Recognition award, Outstanding Arts Performer Award by the Brazilian Immigrant Center (2008) as well as Outstanding Percussionist Award by Berklee College of Music in 2004.

Marcus currently teaches in the Boston area at New England Conservatory, Middlesex Community College and Somerville High School. He is the author of the DVD ‘Modern Approach to Pandeiro’ and performed in the music education DVD ‘Musically Speaking II’ by BOSE. Marcus has lead workshops on Afro- Brazilian percussion and music for Social Change in festivals, universities and conventions around the world such as Fiesta Del Tambor (Cuba), Carnegie Hall (NYC), PASIC (USA) and Harvard University. He is currently the artist director of the Grooversity global drumming network project that includes twenty four drumming groups from the US, Canada, Germany, Mexico and France.

Reaching All Learners: Differentiated Instruction in the General Music Classroom
with Ashley Cuthbertson
October 24, 2020, 9:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Virtual

Every student thrives in an environment that both honors their current ability and pushes them to rise to their own potential. In this session, participants will explore various real-world, tried and true methods of differentiation to support all learners in the music classroom. Participants will explore differentiation’s tenants of content, process, and product through readiness, interest, and learning profile and will learn practical ways to translate these tenants to music learning. Participants will receive a full hand out with activities and ideas for data collection, progress monitoring, lesson planning, intervention, and assessment. Follow-Up Discussion: Tuesday, October 27th, 7:00 - 8:00 PM hosted by BAKE President-Elect Sharon Hamel.

Ashley Cuthbertson is a General Music and Chorus Specialist serving the Fairfax County Public School district in Northern Virginia. Additionally, she serves as a musicianship teacher with the Fairfax Choral Society’s Youth Program and is an Adjunct Faculty member at the American Kodály Institute of Loyola University Maryland where she currently teaches graduate courses in Kodály Pedagogy. She is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher, holds a Kodály Certificate from the American Kodály Institute and the Certificate of Study in Arts Integration from the Kennedy Center’s Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) program. Ashley is an active member of the National Association for Music Education, the Organization of American Kodály Educators where she serves on the board as Eastern Division President-Elect, and the Virginia Organization of Kodály Educators where she serves on the board as President. Recently, examples of her work were featured in Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs: A Practical Resource by Dr. Alice M. Hammel. As an instructional leader, she serves as a curriculum writer for the FCPS General Music curriculum, a Pyramid lead music teacher, a presenter of professional development geared towards music educators, and regularly hosts teachers in her classroom to observe her work with her students. Ashley is a passionate educator and lifelong learner dedicated to ensuring that all students have access to high quality, joyful music instruction.

Developing Critical Views for the Music Classroom
with Brandi Waller-Pace and Lorelei Batislaong
December 5th, 2020, 9:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Virtual

Direct conversations surrounding race, cultural dominance, and marginalization of the experiences, practices, and traditions of racially minoritized people are not common in music education training. We will share our experiences as educators, examples of what we have uncovered about some common repertoire, and concepts of decolonization and anti-racism as they relate to music education. Participants will go beyond repertoire choices and dig deeper into what decolonizing and antiracist philosophies look like when applied to the music room, as well as ways to take action in their own teaching environments. Follow-Up Discussion: Tuesday, December 8th, 7:00 - 8:00 PM hosted by BAKE At-Large Board Members Isun Malekghassemi and Past President Adam McLean

Brandi Waller-Pace is the Founder and Executive Director of Decolonizing the Music Room. She taught elementary music for ten years in Fort Worth, Texas where she served as a mentor teacher, wrote lower elementary music curriculum, and was awarded the 2018 Bayard Friedman Chair for Teaching Excellence in Performance Arts. Brandi holds a B.M. and M.M. in Jazz Studies from Howard University and is pursuing her Ph.D in Music Education at the University of North Texas. She has completed Orff Schulwerk certification, Kodály level I, and Music Learning Theory levels I & II. An educational equity advocate, she has been a member of the Fort Worth ISD racial equity committee since 2018 and in 2019 completed a Campus Voices Fellowship with Leadership ISD, focusing on educational equity. Brandi is an active musician and performs various styles, most often jazz and early American Roots music. She is an active presenter on topics ranging from decolonizing and anti racist philosophies in music education to the Black history of early American music.

Lorelei Batislaong is the Deputy Director of Decolonizing the Music Room. Lorelei is a 14-year veteran of the elementary music classroom. She received a BM in Music with teacher certification from Southwest Texas State University and a MM in Instrumental Conducting from Texas State University. She served on the American Orff Schulwerk Association National Board of Trustees as Region III Representative and is a former chair of the AOSA Diversity and Inclusion committee. Lorelei is the State Director of the Texas affiliate of the National Association for Music Education. Along with presenting local, state and national clinics, Lorelei is completing a Ph.D. in Music and Human Learning at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include: Teacher noticing and decision-making, inclusivity in the music classroom and the teaching profession, and generally wondering why everything is the way it is and how it could be better. 

Assessing Students with Differing Needs in the Elementary General Music Classroom
with Dr. Alice Hammel
September 14, 2019, 9 AM-1PM

Nazarian Center at Rhode Island College
600 Mount Pleasant Avenue, Providence, RI
Co-sponsored with RIMEA

General music classrooms often include students with special needs.  Assessment of the progress of all students can cause concern when students with special needs do not perform at expected grade level standards.  Through thoughtful, well-designed, and sequential assessment tools that measure progress in small increments, we can provide documentation of the musical literacy skills acquired by students who have not always been assessed in a music setting.

Dr. Alice Hammel, Virginia Music Educators Association Outstanding Educator (2018), is a widely known music educator, author, and clinician whose experience in music is extraordinarily diverse. She is a member of the faculty of James Madison University, and has many years of experience teaching instrumental and choral music in public and private schools. Dr. Hammel has put these varied experiences to great use while compiling a large body of scholarly work. She is a co-author for four texts: Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs: A Label-free Approach, Teaching Music to Students with Autism, Winding It Back: Teaching to Individual Differences in Music Classroom and Ensemble Settings, and Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs: A Practical Resource. Dr. Hammel is President Elect of the Council for Exceptional Children – Division for the Arts.

Assessment in the Music Classroom
with Aileen Miracle
September 28, 2019, 9AM - 1PM

East Somerville Community School
50 Cross St., Somerville, MA  02145

This workshop will focus on using formative and summative assessment to nurture each student's musical growth. Attendees will learn many different strategies to assess and improve each child’s musicianship, through songs, games, activities, and the use of various manipulatives. The session will also explore the use of learning centers in the music classroom--showing how these centers provide time for assessment and intervention, opportunities for creativity and student ownership, and a student-centered learning environment.

Aileen Miracle teaches general music, band, and choir in the Olentangy Local School District near Columbus, Ohio; this is her twentieth year teaching. Aileen received her Bachelor of Music Education from Central Michigan University in 1999, and her Master of Music in Music Education from Capital University in 2003; she completed her masters studies at the Kodály Institute in Kecskemet, Hungary. Aileen has served as President of the Tri-City Kodály Educators, President of the Midwest Kodály Music Educators of America, and serves on the Technology Task Force for the Organization of American Kodály Educators. She served as the National Program Chair for the 2015 and 2019 OAKE conferences. She has taught Level I Methodology and Folk Song Research for Colorado State University's Kodály Program, and Level I and III Methodology and Folk Song Research for DePaul University's Kodály Program, and will teach Level III Methodology and Folk Song Research for Capital University's Kodály Program in the summer of 2019. In 2016, Aileen was awarded “Teacher of the Year” at Cheshire Elementary. She has presented at OAKE Conferences, and currently presents workshops across the nation. Her music education blog is called Mrs. Miracle’s Music Room, and can be found at www.mrsmiraclesmusicroom.com.

Vocal Health for Music Educators with Magen Slesinger, CMVT
Teaching Advanced Ideas with Simple Materials with Gabor Viragh
October 19, 2019, 9AM - 1PM

East Somerville Community School
50 Cross St., Somerville, MA  02145

Vocal Health for Music Educators

As a music educator, your voice is an essential tool of your trade. Do you ever feel hoarse after teaching all day? Do you understand the importance of providing a healthy vocal model for young singers, but aren’t always able to consistently produce it? Are you confident in your own singing and are simply looking for additional concrete strategies to add to your toolbox as you strive to encourage healthy singing and speaking from your students? In this workshop we will explore the anatomy involved in healthy singing and speaking in order to develop an understanding of the “why” behind the exercises and techniques. We will explore the concept of functional efficiency as we engage in exercises intended to teach posture, breathing and relaxation. Along the way, we will learn tips and tricks for encouraging healthy vocal production with students.

Magen Slesinger, CMVT is the Coordinator of Fine, Applied, and Performing Arts for Watertown Public Schools. She earned a bachelors in music education at Rhode Island College, a masters in creative arts and learning at Lesley University and a masters in educational leadership at Endicott College. She also studied with the McClosky Institute of Voice where she focused on vocal health and became a Certified McClosky Vocal Technician.

Magen highly values her McClosky voice training, using it in her general music classes and with her chorus of young singers to encourage healthy and beautiful vocal production in their first choral experience. She also uses it in her voice studio where she primarily teaches adults and teenagers to sing music of all different styles, but also works with people with vocal health troubles, helping them back on the road to healthy speaking and singing. She has led several workshops on vocal health, not only to music teachers but also to groups of various “vocal athletes” - anyone who uses their speaking and/or singing voice professionally. She credits the McClosky technique with much of her success as a music educator.

Teaching Advanced Ideas with Simple Materials

This workshop offers specific approaches to the creative use of materials found in Kodaly’s pedagogical compositions (from the 333 Unison Reading Exercises through the rest of Kodaly’s choral library editions) for the teaching of advanced aural structures. With some careful planning, these materials can be turned into preliminary studies for introducing, identifying and practicing terms and compositional techniques found in any given Musical Period, such as fifth-change melodies, real and tonal answers, subject and answer, melodic augmentation and diminution and sensitivity to different parts.

Gabor Viragh is a graduate of The Liszt Academy of Music Teacher Training Institute and The Bela Bartok Conservatory of Music in Budapest, Hungary. He has also completed studies at The Berklee College of Music and The Academia Musicale Ottorino Respighi Festival of Assisi, Italy.

Mr. Viragh is a frequent guest clinician and lecturer at numerous colleges, universities and school systems throughout the United States. He has offered summer workshops using the Kodaly approach at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, NE, Silver Lake College, (2005-2006) WI, Wichita State University1995-present, Kansas, and New England Conservatory Boston, MA. University of Colorado, (1995-2000) Ft. Collins, CO, and The Hartt School University (2010-present of Hartford, CT, Kodaly Workshop for The Omaha Public School System 2 weeks Omaha NE 2018.

He was a featured lecturer at the OAKE Joint Convention in Baltimore, MD, in 1996, and the OAKE National Conference with double sessions in Columbus, Ohio, in 1999; also he was an invited lecturer at the 14th International Kodaly Symposium in Hungary in 1999, and as a presenter at the CMEA 2000, 2001-2007 OAKE National Conferences.

He has collaborated with Faith Knowles (Artistic Director of the Kodaly Center of America) and poet Peter Thompson on a new collection of Kodaly Zoltan’s Bicinias–Volumes 1-2 entitled New Words. He is the author of two Anthologies, titled Living Harmonies, Renaissance & Early Baroque Vocal Works, and In the (Christmas) Mood! Christmas Choral Music. His recent translation of the famous Solfege workbook by Laszlo Dobszay’s World of Sound, partly founded by the Vincent B. Coffin Grant from University of Hartford.

Gabor Viragh is currently an associate faculty member of The Kodaly Center of America, elected board member of OAKE, active performer on both classical and jazz trumpet, appearing on Classical Hits under Musica Mundi label and a latest CD of June Bisantz Evans sings Chet Baker “Lets” Fall In Love” Vol. I-II

Mr. Viragh is an Associate professor of theory and Coordinator of Solfege Studies at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT.(1992-Present)

Living Traditions: Children’s Songs and Singing Games from Central America
with Dr. Rachel Gibson
November 16, 2019, 9AM - 1PM

East Somerville Community School
50 Cross St., Somerville, MA  02145

¡Bienvenidos - Welcome! Come engage in songs and singing games that were recently learned from children and teachers from schools and playgrounds in Guatemala and Nicaragua. The singing games allow for dramatic and musical play, encourage lyrical improvisation, and foster community. The repertoire presented in this session can be easily integrated into the Kodály sequence and the Spanish texts are short, repetitive, and accessible to learn. Field videos will be shown to demonstrate these living traditions in authentic contexts.

Dr. Rachel Gibson is an Associate Professor of Music at Westfield State University in Massachusetts where she is the coordinator of music education and a specialist in early childhood and elementary music. Dr. Gibson is an active clinician at the state and national levels where she leads workshops on a variety of topics including music literacy games and activities, multicultural songs and singing games, and folk dancing. Her research interests include folk song traditions in Central America and has recently completed a ten-month sabbatical in Guatemala and Nicaragua where she engaged in folk song collection and language study. Dr. Gibson has trained in the Orff and Kodály approaches and is on faculty at the University of Montevallo Kodály Institute in Alabama. Prior to her current position, she taught K-6 general music and chorus for 15 years in New York, Connecticut, and Washington State. She also maintained a large piano studio where she taught lessons to children and adults.

Inspiring Excellence: Repertoire and Techniques to Engage Singers and Their Conductors!
with Michele Adams
September 29, 2018, 9AM - 1PM

Great singing and beautiful performances are an outgrowth of inspired teaching and conducting. Using the whole person context, learn to develop your artists as singers, musicians, and performers. Hone your skills in these crucial areas:

• Vocal Production: What is your philosophy? Further develop your toolbox of techniques and warm-ups.

• Conducting Technique: Does your gesture clearly communicate information to your singers? Train your singers to be sensitive to your conducting.

• Musical Literary: What is a literate musician? Encourage independence in your rehearsals.

• Repertoire: What are the non-negotiables of programming? Look at sample repertoire and the guiding philosophies to choose music skillfully.

Leave with practical techniques and music in-hand for a fresh start to a new school year!

Michele Adams is an active guest conductor, adjudicator, and speaker. This season she will serve as guest conductor and clinician for festivals in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Recent engagements include conducting honor choirs in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the involvement of children’s choirs in two opera premieres, presenting sessions at the 2016 Eastern Division American Choral Directors Association Conference, and conducting the 2015 and 2013 Rhode Island All-State Choirs. Adams teaches masters level courses at Messiah College as an adjunct professor in the choral conducting program and serves on the faculty of Veritas Christian Academy in Massachusetts.

Adams served for ten seasons as the Director of Choirs for the award-winning Boston Children’s Chorus (BCC). She conducted choirs of all levels, managed the innovative education program, and administrated the artistic programming for the thirteen choirs and twenty-plus-member artistic team. Described as “splendid” (The Wall Street Journal)and “eloquent and perfectly-tuned” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), her choirs collaborated with a rich variety of artists and ensembles, including Kristin Chenoweth and the Boston Pops. She has prepared her singers for major works, including Mahler’sSymphony No. 8, Bernstein’sSymphony No. 3 “Kaddish”, and Britten’s War Requiem. She created the BCC Professional Development Workshop for music educators, an event now in its tenth year.

She began her teaching career in the New York City Public Schools where she founded the first choral program in her magnet school and coordinated arts collaborations between the school and community. She has held K-12 teaching certification in three states. She completed a Master of Music in Choral Conducting at Florida State University, where she studied with Rodney Eichenberger and André Thomas. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from The University of South Carolina.

Family Folk Song Project with Cathy Ward
Ukulele for Elementary with David Piper
October 20, 2018, 9AM - 1PM

Family Folk Song Project

A family folk song project allows you to engage families and collect authentic folk songs that you can use in your classroom to make your repertoire culturally relevant to your school community. In this session, I will share folk songs collected from my students in Somerville, MA, as well as the steps you can follow to complete your own family folk song project.

Participants will be able to:

• encourage their students to make music at home with their families

• collect authentic folk songs from their students

• use folk songs collected from their students in their teaching to make the repertoire relevant to the culture of their school community

Cathy Ward teaches elementary general music in Somerville, Massachusetts where she encourages all students to be active music makers through sequential and culturally relevant musical experiences. She has completed all three levels of Kodaly at the University of Hartford and Orff Level 1 at Boston University. Cathy studied at Boston University (Masters of Music, Music Education, 2012), and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario (Bachelor of Education, 2010, Bachelor of Music, 2009). Cathy is a frequent presenter at conferences and teacher trainings, and she is especially interested in promoting ways to make quality music education accessible for all students.

Ukulele for Elementary

What makes the ukulele great for elementary music? At this workshop we will get “ukes” in every participant’s hands, and showcase how it can be a great addition to your classroom! We’ll start with its unique “so-do-mi-la” tuning, which makes it a great fit for a Kodály curriculum. We’ll talk about strategies to get students feeling successful quickly. Then we’ll dive into several easy tonic-dominant songs that get students hearing chord changes, and equip them to be life-long music makers. There will be about 20 ukuleles available to borrow for the workshop, or bring your own!

David Piper teaches K-5 music for Concord Public Schools. He holds an M.A. from Gordon College, a Diploma from Berklee College of Music in music production & engineering, and two B.A. degrees fromE UMass Amherst. He performs on upright and electric bass with bluegrass band Gin Daisy, surf rock group Matt Heaton & the Electric Heaters, and singer-songwriters The Wednesdays. He has produced four collections of music for Canta Y Baila Conmigo, a Spanish immersion curriculum used by Music Together centers nationwide.

World Music and Movement in the K-12 Classroom
with Donna Menhart
November 3, 2018, 9AM - 1PM

This active-learning workshop will demonstrate the various levels and purposes of international folk songs, chants, and movement pieces appropriate for traditional and non-traditional learning environments. Attendees will learn how multi-cultural songs are efficiently incorporated into the general music, choral, and instrumental classroom, providing aural, psychological, technical, and physical preparation for literacy. We will perform programmable options from various countries, giving educators the opportunity to experience the accessibility of international cultures that they may share with their students. Throughout this learning experience, participants will expand their own musicianship skills with more advanced repertoire reminiscent of Kodály Levels training. Above all else, everyone will be reminded that music is the universal language and is meant to be shared.

Donna Menhart is Associate Dean for Programs and Academic Innovation, along with Associate Professor of Ear Training, Kodaly at The Hartt School, University of Hartford, where she received the University of Hartford Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award in 2007. From 1990-2011 Professor Menhart served as the coordinator and Kodály ear-training/music theory instructor for the Performer’s Certificate Program, a college-preparatory program for advanced high school musicians she developed for The Hartt School Community Division. As a Kodály Master Teacher, Donna has taught Musicianship Levels I, II and III for the Summer Kodály Certification Program at the Kodály Institute at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.

Professor Menhart is currently President Elect for the Organization of American Kodály Educators (OAKE), Immediate Past President for the Eastern Division of OAKE, Past President of the Kodály Educators of Southern New England (KESNE), has served on the KESNE Board since 2008, and was the National Program Chair for the 2013 OAKE Conference in Hartford, CT. Donna presents regularly on Kodály Pedagogy at conferences for local, regional, national, and international professional music organizations including the Connecticut Music Educators Association (CMEA), the Rhode Island Music Educators Association (RIMEA), the Orange County Music Educators Association (OCMEA), the Kodály Educators of New York (KONY), Kodály New Jersey (KNJ), KESNE, OAKE, and the International Kodály Society (IKS). Donna is published in the Kodály Envoy of OAKE, the Choral Journal of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), and the Bulletin of IKS, and presented at the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd International Kodály Symposia, in Kecskemét, Hungary, Edinburgh, Scotland, and Alberta, Canada.

From 2004-2013 Professor Menhart served as the director of the Treble Choir for grades 5-8 and the high school Bel Canto Choir at St. Andrew Church in Colchester, CT, and has successfully sponsored and coached young singers for acceptance and participation in the OAKE National Children’s, Youth, Women’s, Concert, and Chamber Choirs. She received Level III Kodály Certification and a double Master of Music in piano pedagogy and music theory from The Hartt School, where she was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda, the National Music Honor Society, for which she serves as Secretary/Treasurer for Hartt’s Epsilon Gamma Chapter. Donna received a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from the University of Rhode Island.

Making Cultural Connections: Children’s Songs from Afghanistan
with Louise Pascale, Ph.D.
September 23, 2017, 9AM - 1PM

In this workshop we will explore the many hidden treasures of children’s songs from Afghanistan. First collected in the 1960’s, these songs are part of the Afghan Children’s Songbook & Literacy project Louise Pascale created to revive and renew culture in the war-torn country. We will learn songs and traditional dance as well as reflect on the profound impact music has on connecting culture, strengthening identity and building community and how it impacts music education in the United States.

Louise Pascale, Ph.D., is a Lesley University Professor in the Creative Arts in Learning Division and has worked for 25 years in the field of arts and education. She is co-author of the book, Integrating the Arts Across Content Areas and offers presentations nationally in arts integration, literacy and common core. Her research interest focuses on investigating ways singing impacts community building, and education. Louise is founder and director of the Afghan Children’s Songbook & Literacy project, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to preserving traditional Afghan children’s songs that were almost totally eradicated due to years of war and oppression.

Broadside Ballads: Social Consciousness in Song
with Mary Ellen Junda
October 21, 2017, 9AM - 1PM

What stories do your students have?  What stories do they want to tell?  What stories are meaningful to them?  What issues matter to them?

In the age of social media where every person has a story to tell, this session will focus on telling stories through song for the “greater good.”  The template for these cultural expeditions is the broadside ballad. We will explore the intricacies of social consciousness and song composition drawn from past events that reflect the effects of social, political and cultural change. This ballad project introduces students of all ages to the power of song as a vehicle for responding to events or conditions that are infused with strong feelings and opinions. The song-writing experience helps them to understand the value of collaboration to achieve artistic goals, the role of music as an expression of social justice and social consciousness, the intricacies of the relationship between melody and lyrics, the use of visuals to enhance the performance experience and the power of song as voices are joined together with a common purpose.

The instructional process will be presented in detail from the preparatory activities through the creation of the final compositions and broadsides. Participants will work in groups to experience firsthand how the song-writing process develops, evolves and is shared. Those attending should bring computers, tablets, guitars and accompanying instruments to be fully immersed in this artistic collaborative creative process.

In our society where young people constantly share their own stories, telling someone else’s helps to develop empathy; in a culture in which young people are surrounded by music, creating a ballad helps to develop a deeper appreciation for artistic expression; and in a world in which the population is connected to news updates continuously, choosing stories to share through song helps to discriminate between issues that have long-term impact and those that will fade quickly. By creating new broadsides, our students will join their voices to those from the past who have responded with energy, emotion and creativity to circumstances and events that impacted their lives, thus continuing the broadside ballad tradition for another generation.

Mary Ellen Junda, Professor of Music at UCONN, is recognized as an innovative music educator, conductor, scholar and recording artist. She is director of the Women’s Choir and Earthtones Vocal Ensemble that focuses on social justice and global cultures. Past performances include the songs of Trinidad and Tobago, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War and the Gullah people.

Dr. Junda is co-director with Dr. Robert Stephens for their Landmarks in American History and Culture Program, Gullah Voices: Traditions and Transformations, awarded $760,000 by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Gullah Voices has brought teachers from throughout the nation to study Gullah music and culture in Savannah, GA with the proceedings archived in the Connecticut Digital Archives at the Dodd Research Center. Recent articles are featured in General Music Today and College Music Symposium and with co-author Dr. Stephens in the International Journal of Critical Cultural Studies and a chapter in Songs of Social Protest (in press). Recent conference presentations include the College Music Society National Conference; International Symposium for Singing, Newfoundland, Canada; Songs of Social Protest, Limerick, Ireland; and Protest Songs and Social Justice, Lisbon, Portugal.

Awarded the Howard Foundation Fellowship in Music Performance from Brown University for her exemplary choral conducting, Dr. Junda future guest conducting includes the 2017 Massachusetts and Connecticut Elementary Honors Choirs. She is past director of The Main Street Singers and Treblemakers Children’s Choir. Her three Singing with Treblemakers recordings have received national awards and are recognized globally as a model for children’s singing voices.

One! Two! Three! Playground Songs and Games from Israel with Martha Sandman Holmes
MAKE & TAKE with Kelly Graeber
November 18, 2017, 9AM - 1PM

Martha Holmes recently edited Rita Klinger’s collection of songs and games, and will be teaching many of them in this workshop.  This wonderful resource contains jump rope rhymes, ball bouncing chants, songs and games that are appropriate for preschool to grade 5.  The book includes musical notation, transliteration, translation, game directions, and illustrations, and will be available for purchase.

Martha Sandman Holmes (editor) has been a music teacher, choral conductor and arranger for more than 30 years. She received her Kodály training and M.M. in Music Education from the Kodály Musical Training Institute and Holy Names University, and taught in public schools in Alameda, CA, Brookline and Newton, MA. Martha also has many years of experience teaching in Hebrew schools in Syracuse, Montreal, Berkeley, Newton and Boston. She has a keen interest in Israeli and International music and folk dance, and has performed with Zamir Chorale, Mandala Folk Dance Ensemble, Cambridge Chamber Singers and the Cambridge Christmas Revels.   She has three published choral arrangements, available through Boosey & Hawkes and Ratajova Publishing.

Join us for the second half of our day where we will be making materials to be used in our classroom led by BAKE’s own make & take guru Kelly Graeber!

Kelly Graeber studied voice with the acclaimed soprano Cynthia Haymon. In 2006, she completed a Master of Music in Music Education at The Boston Conservatory and began teaching public school. Ms. Graeber studied Orff-Schulwerk music education at Boston University. In 2009, she visited Budapest on a pedagogy tour to observe music teaching and learning in Hungarian schools that follow the method of Zoltán Kodály, a Hungarian composer, musicologist and music educator. Inspired by the visit, she completed a three-year Certificate program in Kodály teaching with distinction from the Kodály Music Institute in 2014.Ms. Graeber teaches elementary school general music and chorus at the Morse School in Cambridge, MA. In an era where districts are cutting funding to music, she has expanded the music program, developing a Kodály based program based on frequent music instruction. Students at the Morse School have music classes 3 to 4 times per week. For the past 12 years she has been cantor and choir director at Saint Mary Church in West Quincy.

Folk Dances and Play Parties-A Sequence
with Dr. Brian Michaud
September 17, 2016, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Boston University

Make your classes come alive! In this workshop, participants will sing and dance their way through a sequential approach to teaching folk dances and play parties that are appropriate for kindergarten through middle school students. Just as with musical concepts, dance moves can be presented in a spiraling curriculum so that each grade becomes more confident and adept at performing folk dances. We will explore the musical and cultural significance of the various dances so that the students are not just “learning steps” but rather experiencing culture and gaining understanding of why folk dance exists. Integrated into the folk dance sequence is a music literacy component so that the play party material will fit well into a Kodály-based curriculum.

Dr. Brian Michaud teaches grades K-4, chorus, folk dance team, and bell choir for the Dighton-Rehoboth Public Schools. He holds a DMA from Boston University, Master’s Degree from the University of Connecticut, and his Bachelor’s Degree from Berklee College of Music. Dr. Michaud has taught at Boston University, and has directed and been on the faculty of the Kodály Music Institute at both the New England Conservatory and Anna Maria College. Being a teacher and professional musician, Brian has performed on percussion, guitar, piano and voice in a variety of settings from classical and jazz to rock and country. He has presented both at the state MMEA and national OAKE conferences and, in 2004, was a finalist for the Massachusetts Teacher of the Year. Outside of the music education field, Dr. Michaud is the author of a young adult fantasy book series called The Tales of Gaspar.

Assessing Students with Differing Needs in the Elementary General Music Classroom
with Dr. Alice Hammel
October 1, 2016, 9 a.m. -1 p.m.

Boston University

Assessing students who learn differently requires a deep knowledge of sequence, and a willingness to create individualized assessment experiences. As Kodály  teachers, we have that sequential knowledge and a desire to meet the needs of our students. This workshop will focus on ways to incrementally sequence success and competency attainment for our students who learn differently. It will focus on students who struggle as well as students who exceed.

Dr. Alice M. Hammel is a widely known music educator, author, and clinician whose experience in music is extraordinarily diverse. She is currently affiliated with James Madison and Virginia Commonwealth Universities and has a large private studio in Richmond, VA. She is a co-author of several resources available through Oxford University Press including: Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs: A Label-Free Approach, Teaching Music to Students with Autism, and Winding it Back: Creating Individualized Instruction in Music Classrooms and Ensembles. She is Chair of the National Association for Music Education Task Force on Students with Special Needs. Her primary goal is to become a better teacher with each passing day.

Kodály Music Education: Myth Busters, Our Triumvirate Workshop
with Cambridge Public Schools and the Kodály Music Institute
November 19, 2016, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Cambridge Rindge & Latin School

Our third workshop of the season is our Triumvirate workshop titled: Kodály Music Education: Myth Busters. This is a full day workshop that is in collaboration with Cambridge Public Schools, Kodály Music Institute and Boston Area Kodály Educators on November 19th. Cambridge teachers and students will be featured in the morning followed by repertoire and strategies session presented by Margie Callaghan, Co-Director of the Kodály Music Institute. This is a unique opportunity for people who are new to Kodály-inspired teaching and veteran teachers to review and refresh their practices while also seeing students who are already immersed in a rigorous program (Cambridge students have music 3 to 4 times weekly)! All are encouraged to come to see this special presentation!

Singing Games and Traditions from the African-American Diaspora
with Karen Howard
September 26, 2015

Participants will learn high-energy singing and dance traditions from communities throughout the African and African-diasporic communities (West African, African-American, Puerto Rican, Jamaican…) as well as pedagogical considerations and strategies for school music. Direct applications for Kodály-inspired teaching will be demonstrated and discussed.

Karen is an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of St. Thomas. Karen received her Bachelor’s and Masters degrees from The Hartt School, and her Ph.D. from the Univ. of Washington. She was an elementary music educator and children’s choir director, first in Connecticut and then in Seattle, for 21 years. She has extensive training in multicultural music and dance. Some of the places she has studied include Cuba, Tahiti, Ghana, Turkey, Macedonia, Thailand, Morocco and India. She has presented workshops at the national and international level helping teachers make connections with music of other cultures. Karen was recognized as CMEA’s Elementary Music Educator of the year in 2003.

Triumvirate Workshop
with Kathryn Bach, Susie Petrov, Charlyn Bethell
October 17, 2015

Kathryn O. Bach holds a Bachelors degree from the Hartt School, a MM in Music Education with Kodaly emphasis from Holy Names University and a Fine Arts Director Certificate from Fitchburg State University. Ms. Bach has served on the board of the Northern California Association of Kodaly Educators in charge of the newsletter and merchandise sales and is presently a board member of Boston Area Kodály Educators as the Interim President. On faculty with the Kodaly Music Institute, she has held various positions as pedagogy teacher with Vocal Vacation to Chamber Music Coordinator to Conductor. In 2011, Ms. Bach was recruited by Cambridge, Massachusetts Public School District to teach as part of their growing Kodaly program. Entering her fourth year of teaching at the Peabody School, she is the lead teacher in the enhanced music program for grades JK-2. The Peabody School in Cambridge is home to the pilot daily music program based on the Kodaly Vision of music education being researched by Dr. Martin Gardiner of Brown University. Peabody students will be featured in a documentary sponsored by OAKE called the Cambridge Kodaly Project. Ms. Bach has served as a presenter for Cambridge Public Schools Institute of Excellence, Massachusetts Music Educators Association, Boston Area Kodaly Educators, Kodaly Music Institute and Chorus America Conference 2015.

Susie Petrov has been teaching music to students K-9 in the Kodály tradition since 1984. Folk Dance and movement are a big part of every music class with Susie, coming largely from her early experience as a Scottish Country dancer. She currently teaches K-5 in Winchester, MA. Susie has worked for many years as Summer Co-Director and teacher for the Kodály Music Institute. On weekends and school holidays she performs Scottish music with her ensembles, Local Hero and The Parcel of Rogues. Recent teaching and performing engagements have been at the New Harmony Music Festival and School, Family Week at Pinewoods Camp, Clan Currie’s Pipes of Christmas in New York. Susie plays for country dances anywhere between Oslo, Norway, Oldenberg, Germany, Philadelphia, Montreal and even in Boston!

After completing a BA in Applied Music and a B Ed in Elementary Vocal Education from Western Washington State University, Charlyn spent two years in Aarhus, Denmark earning a diploma in oboe performance from the State Conservatory in Denmark. She took many evening and summer courses from the Kodaly Center of America, and completed a Kodaly certificate in their first full-academic year program. She taught in the Lexington Waldorf School and is beginning her twenty-eight year teaching general music and chorus at the Willard Elementary School in Concord, MA. She is an endorsed trainer for Education Through Movement, and her master’s degree is from Cambridge College. She has remained an active freelance oboist, and she regularly plays chamber music in Kaleidoscope Chamber Ensemble and Solar Winds, a woodwind quintet. She is an adjunct oboe instructor at Phillips Andover Academy, and she is a credentialed music leader, serving as the music director at the Unitarian Universalist church, First Parish in Watertown. She has taught in the Kodaly Music Institute since its founding. She has presented several times at: MMEA, OAKE, BAKE, and the Mass Cue Technology Conference.

Denise Gagne – Singing Games and So Much More!
with Denise Gagne
January 23, 2016

In this session Denise will teach some of her favorite singing games and activities that will teach and reinforce the fundamentals in your music classes. Extensions to the games will be shared that will help you get your students improvising and creating. We’ll explore how apps and digital resources can be used in conjunction with manipulatives to teach basic concepts reaching all kinds of learners. Denise will share solfa exercises and games that will help your students to become literate musicians.

Denise Gagne is a music specialist with 35 years of experience teaching band, choir and classroom music from pre-school to College levels.  Her choirs and bands won many awards at Music Festivals and performed for local and national sporting events, on national radio and even for the Queen.  Denise has a Bachelor of Music from the University of Victoria,  a Bachelor of Education from the University of Saskatchewan, a Diploma in Music from the University of Auckland (pending), and a Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Arts (Kodàly Level 3) from the University of Calgary with Lois Choksy.  She has completed Orff Level 3 and additional Orff training with Cindy Hall, Jay Broeker, Jos Wuytack and Donna Otto.

Denise has served on the boards of the Saskatchwan Music Educators Association, the Saskatchewan Band Association, and served for eight years on the board of the Kodàly Society of Canada.  Denise is currently managing editor of Themes & Variations, preschool music teacher and frequent visitor to Red Deer elementary school music classrooms.

Choral Reading and Strategies for Elementary to Middle School
with Dr. Mary Ellen Junda
September 20, 2014, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

In this workshop, Dr. Junda will expand on traditional approaches to choral instruction with the aim of developing a community of singers who are comfortable with creative, spontaneous and diverse approaches to making music in a variety of settings and for varied purposes. With Kodály-based instructional techniques as a foundation, a framework will be introduced for designing curricula  and choral programs with an emphasis on creativity, reflective practice, engagement,  service and social consciousness. The goals are to develop a singing culture in  which students respect their own role and the role of others; contribute to the culture  of the school in meaningful ways; develop confidence in their creative abilities and become a force for social change. Includes Choral Music Packet.

Dr. Junda is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Ensembles at the University of Connecticut. She earned a B.M. from The Hartt School, University of Hartford; M.M.Ed. from Holy Names University, and an Ed.M. and Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University.

A Journey Through African-American Music, Jewish/Israeli Songs, and the context in which Americans first brought the Kodály Philosophy from behind the Iron Curtain
with Betty Hillmon, Martha Holmes and Mary Epstein
October 25, 2014, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

This workshop will feature a triumvirate of scholars from our own chapter. Betty Hillmon is considered a primary source for music of the African-American folk music tradition. Martha Holmes will share accessible choral music from the Jewish/Israeli tradition in multiple languages. Mary Epstein will speak about her dissertation regarding the fascinating beginnings of the American Kodály movement.

Hidden and Lost Meaning in Children’s Folksong
with Jeffrey Rhone
January 10, 2015, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Jeffrey Rhone is currently a full-time doctoral student in music education at the Hartt School, where he teaches during the Summer Term.  He is a performance expert and scholar on traditional American folk music and balladry.  Jeff uses his hand-made auto-harp, dulcimer and banjo to deliver astounding performances, and has taught all levels of pedagogy from pre-k through college.

Harmonia Mundi: Afternoon Chapter Share
Saturday, March 28, 2015, 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Couldn’t make it to the 2015 OAKE Conference? Let us bring highlights of the conference back to you as BAKE members re-present their favorite selections from the conference in Minneapolis. This is a Saturday afternoon workshop.