Seminars and Lectures
ACDA Events
Reading Session-Dr. Rollo Dilworth
In the Fall of 2012, I attended the ACDA Fall Reading Session seminar with Dr. Rollo Dilworth as the leading clinician. This event included sight-reading sessions with Dr. Dilworth, Dr. Amanda Quist, Justin Binek, Michael Schmidt, Dr. Al Holcomb, Trish Joyce, and Prof. Tom Shelton. The session encompassed jazz, multicultural, middle school, men's, women's, and children's choir repertoire.
Graduate Conducting Masterclass with Dr. André Thomas
Dr. André Thomas visited Westminster Choir College and presented several different classes and lectures about conducting, rehearsal techniques, and overall choral musicality. I attended the Graduate Conducting Masterclass in Music Education Laboratory. Dr. Thomas worked with the conductors on using empty versus heavy energy to achieve certain timbres from the choir due to register, resonance, and breath.
NAfME Events
Spiros Xydas: Ipads in the Classroom
In the Spring semester of 2014, Mr. Spiros Xydas came to present during Music Education Lab. He gave a wonderful presentation on using Ipads and general technology in the classroom. He gave us great tips on layering programs, cover song projects, and how to create a rap from a program that transforms your voice and layers it into rap music. This was extremely helpful due to my inhibition with technology. This session showed me how I can give my future students musical responsibility in a general music classroom without any feelings of inadequacy as a musician.
In the Spring semester of 2014, Mr. Spiros Xydas came to present during Music Education Lab. He gave a wonderful presentation on using Ipads and general technology in the classroom. He gave us great tips on layering programs, cover song projects, and how to create a rap from a program that transforms your voice and layers it into rap music. This was extremely helpful due to my inhibition with technology. This session showed me how I can give my future students musical responsibility in a general music classroom without any feelings of inadequacy as a musician.
True North: Canadian Choral Reading Session with Mr. W. Edward McCall
During the last Music Education Laboratory of the Spring 2013 semester, Mr. W. Edward McCall was our guest presenter for a NAfME Education Laboratory. He directed a Canadian Choral composers' reading session in which we explored composers such as Stephen Chatman, Eleanor Dalee, and Stephen Hatfield. The choral works ranged from elementary to a more advanced high school level, all the pieces being very accessible to the appropriate group.
Dalcroze Eurhytmics with Dr. Thomas Parente
Dr. Thomas Parente was a guest presenter during Music Education Laboratory during this semester. He presented us with ideas on how to use movement and gesture to teach students through kinesthetics. Articulation, subdivision, rhythm, rubato and other tempo changes, reactions, anticipation, and other musical and behaviorally musical skills were introduced to us through movement and auditory attentive activities.
Creative Thinking in Music with Dr. Sandra Stauffer
Dr. Sandra Stauffer visited Westminster as a guest NAfME presenter during my freshman year. She discussed how to instill creativity in the classroom and the many definitions of creativity. We discussed the four "P"s of creativity: process, product, person, and place. Dr. Stauffer described how these ideas can be used to help students initiate the creative process using their individual qualities, learning styles, and intrinsic motivation.
Manipulatives with Dr. Sharon Morrow
During a Music Education Laboratory in October of 2012, Dr. Sharon Morrow presented a fabulous interactive session on manipulatives in the classroom. She presented a manipulative involving "Spring" from Verdi's Four Seasons. This particular example used visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learning tools to teach students texture and musical style.
Other Seminars and Lectures
Stravinsky and Brahms-Words and Music with Dr. Joseph Flummerfelt
In October of my freshman year, I was able to attend Dr. Joseph Flummerfelt's seminar on select works of Stravinsky and Brahms. In this seminar we discussed Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and selections from Brahms' Vocal Duets and Quartets with Piano. Dr. Flummerfelt spoke of how and why the texts were set in certain ways based on the composers' genre at the times when these works were written.
Excellence in Executive Leadership: Leadership in the Arts
During my first semester at Westminster, I had the opportunity to attend the "Excellence in Executive Leadership: Leadership in the Arts" luncheon seminar. We discussed networking and arts administration career pathways with arts administrators in the Princeton area.
Performing Music, Performing Disability with Joseph Straus
In April of 2013, I attended Joseph Straus's presentation on disabilities in the music performance world. He spoke about cultural scripts and receptions in the performance of disability, using specific examples from performers such as Thomas Quasthoff and Itzhak Perlman. His presentation was a perfect example of being able to "read the work and the world". Performers such as Evelyn Glennie have the knowledge that they can use other senses and abilities to listen, learn, reflect, and perform as musicians. These performers with disabilities challenge assumptions of cultural scripts.
Four Simple Guidelines for Group Participation with Nick Page
Nick Page was a visiting presenter during Music Education Laboratory in February of 2013. He discussed group participation and "honored our world" by not only involving us in activities that he would use in a classroom but also explaining how and why he uses his methods. Mr. Page emphasized creating confidence in a group, teaching songs as if we were teaching ourselves, and honoring cultural traditions.
Making New Music: Tips for Commissioning Works with Joel Phillips
Dr. Joel Phillips gave a Music Education Laboratory presentation on commissioning new works from composers. In addition to offering his own services in commissioning composers' works, he also gave us tips on ways to get started on commission agreements. Categories included fees, commissioner privileges, due dates, and actual musical considerations such as duration and type of ensemble.
Music Education Laboratory with Patrick Lenihan
Mr. Patrick Lenihan spoke to the Music Education majors of interview tactics and ways to prepare for interviews. He went so far as to advise us to pay close attention to our experiences while student teaching to learn about ways of compromising with administrators, finding ways of making a positive influence on students with creative lesson plans, and still honoring school curriculum. During an interview process we might want to bring up some of these tactics or views to encourage administration that we are courageous and creative while still being cooperative.