HIGHER EDUCATION

Case Western Reserve University

Director of Choirs Chris Clark performed with the Cleveland Chamber Choir at the American Choral Directors Association National Conference held in Cincinnati, Ohio in February. The program, Of Sound Mind: From Darkness into Light, featured music relating to neurodiversity. Dr. Clark also assisted in the presentation “Dreaming a Just and Equitable Choral Future with Voices 21C.” In this session, they explained the main values that the social justice ensemble governs themselves by and explored some of the processes by which they create musical programs. At the Ohio Music Educators Association Professional Development Conference, Dr. Clark presented a well-attended session “Building Harmony: Deploying Harmonic Warm-Ups in the Choral Rehearsal,” which explained different ways of using scales, tonality, and modulation to use harmony in the warm-up session of a choral rehearsal.

Assistant Professor of Music Education

Benjamin Helton published “Policy dispositions among music administrators at higher learning institutions,” co-authored with CWRU doctoral candidate Jason Delfing. The piece is published in the Journal of Music Teacher Education. Helton also published an opinion column in the Columbus Dispatch on school vouchers (2/23/23).

Professor of Music Education Lisa Huisman Koops launched Season 2 of the podcast Parenting Musically. Season 2 is sponsored by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and features interviews with musicians, researchers, and Rock Hall educators.

CWRU Music Education hosted Dr. André de Quadros, Professor of Music Education at the Boston University for a residency in February, 2023. Dr. de Quadros led undergraduate and graduate seminars on his philosophy and research. He presented “Freedom Dreaming, Dismantling Walls: Music and Social Justice” for the Music Department Colloquium.

Columbus State Community College

Columbus State Community College Concert Band, under the direction of Thomas Lloyd, performed their Autumn Semester Concert on November 29th. The program began with “On Parade March” by Amanda Aldridge and included “A Thousand Single Snowflakes” by Amber Sheeran and “Tribal Dance” by William Grant Still. The band continued their study of music by African American composers of the early twentieth century with “A Ragtime Dance” by Will Marion Cook. Since 2021, the band has performed works by Will Vodery, William H. Tyers, and James Reese Europe, including his “Clef Club March,” all in new editions prepared by Thomas Lloyd.

Kent State University

In early January, the Kent State Bands hosted our annual All-Star Band Invitational with 225 students representing more than 50 schools from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Students attended a faculty recital and participated in masterclasses with our studio faculty. Students worked with guest conductor, Jamal Duncan, Associate Director of Bands and Assistant Director of the School of Music at Arizona State University, and

KSU faculty members Dr. Benjamin Lorenzo, Dr. Darin Olson, and Dr. Wendy Matthews. The event concluded with an exciting performance by the two ensembles to a capacity crowd in Cartwright Hall Auditorium.

Congratulations to the leadership of our fully online Master of Music in Music Education program for being recognized by Intelligent.com as providing the best student services among all such programs. The online MMME is one of the best and biggest programs in the country. Senior Advisor Jenna Sepúlveda and Program Coordinator Dr. Butch Marshall take tremendous care to help students succeed. This is a well-deserved honor for an outstanding program!

Kent State was well represented at the 2023 OMEA Professional Development Clinic in Columbus. Congratulations to Dr. Jay White (voice), Dr. Rachael Fleischaker (Music Education), Music Education doctoral students Lisa Heinrich, Bri- an Laakso, Jacob Gibson, Martin Ryan, and David Thompson on excellent presentations of their pedagogical and research work. Professor Bobby Selvaggio was the Director of the Intercollegiate Jazz Ensemble; Dr. Matthew Holm and Dr. Janine Tiffe led the Kent State Percussion Ensemble in an outstanding performance. We were thrilled to welcome more than 100 alumni and friends to our reception and look forward to seeing you all next February in Columbus.

We are thrilled to be offering professional development classes this summer on the Kent State campus! We’d love to have you join us for Orff Levels 1, 2, and 3 (June 20-24 and 26-30); Early Childhood Music—A Music Learning Theory Approach (July 5-8 and 10-15); and Choral/Instrumental Conducting Intensive (July 17-21). For more information, please visit https://www.kent. edu/music/mued-summer-courses or email Dr. Butch Marshall at hmarsha6@kent.edu.

WWW.ASHLAND.EDU/MUSIC o:419.289.5100 e:music@ashland.edu Scholarships available to music majors, minors, and ensemble participants!