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Time:

Friday
December, 17, 2021
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Location:

W 176

Clinician(s)

Scott Edgar

Scott Edgar

[email protected]
Bob Morrison

Bob Morrison

[email protected]
Brian Balmages

Brian Balmages

[email protected]
Cait Nishimura

Cait Nishimura

[email protected]
Richard Saucedo

Richard Saucedo

[email protected]
Alex Shapiro

Alex Shapiro

[email protected]
Jim Stephenson

Jim Stephenson

[email protected]
Omar Thomas

Omar Thomas

[email protected]

Embedding Social Emotional Learning in Instrumental Music Education

Clinic Synopsis:

This session will provide practical lessons from the instrumental classroom by a panel of music educators/composers sharing activities for SEL implementation to help students be more socially emotionally competent and ready to learn music. The activities presented have been designed to augment/enhance music instruction. Includes an introduction of SEL, interpretation for music educators, and resources to implement SEL. Composers will provide insight into how they create music with SEL in mind.

Scott Edgar - Biographical Information

Dr. Scott N. Edgar is Associate Professor of Music, Chair of Music, and Director of Bands at Lake Forest College. He received his Doctorate of Philosophy in Music Education from the University of Michigan, his Masters degree in Education from the University of Dayton, and his Bachelor of Music in Music Education degree from Bowling Green State University. His previous teaching experience in higher education includes work at Adrian College and Concordia College Ann Arbor. Prior to his work in higher education he taught K-12 instrumental music in Ohio and Michigan. Dr. Edgar is the author of Music Education and Social Emotional Learning: The Heart of Teaching Music and is an internationally sought-after clinician on the topic. In addition to clinics, he also teaches graduate courses on Musical Social Emotional Learning at VanderCook College of Music. He is an active clinician and adjudicator for both concert band and marching band, and regularly presents at professional development and research conferences. Dr. Edgar is Director of the Center for Arts Education and Social Emotional Learning, a Conn-Selmer Educational Clinician and VH1 Save the Music Foundation Educational Consultant. Dr. Edgar is a member of the National Association for Music Education, the American Educational Research Association, the College Music Society, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music fraternity and Kappa Kappa Psi Band fraternity. He lives in Lake Villa with his wife Steph, their son Nathan, and their cats Elsa and Wolfie.

Bob Morrison - Biographical Information

Robert B. Morrison is a nationally recognized leader arts education with a deep body of research and policy work. He serves as the director of Arts Ed NJ and the founder and CEO of Quadrant Research. He is the founder of Music for All and was the first CEO of the VH1 Save The Music Foundation. Mr. Morrison’s advocacy work has earned him both a Prime-time EMMY and a Peabody Award, the New Jersey Governor’s Award for Arts Education and an honorary doctorate degree from the State University of New York.

Brian Balmages - Biographical Information

Brian Balmages (b. 1975) is an award-winning composer and conductor. His music has been performed throughout the world. World premieres include prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. He is a recipient of the A. Austin Harding Award from the American School Band Directors Association, won the 2020 NBA William D. Revelli Composition Contest with his work Love and Light, and was awarded the inaugural James Madison University Distinguished Alumni Award from the School of Visual and Performing Arts As a conductor, Mr. Balmages enjoys regular engagements with all-state and region bands and orchestras, as well as university and professional ensembles throughout the world. Notable guest conducting appearances have included the Midwest Clinic, Western International Band Clinic, College Band Directors Conference, American School Band Directors Association National Conference, numerous state ASTA conferences and others. Additional conducting appearances have included the Kennedy Center and Meyerhoff Symphony Hall as well as band and orchestra engagements in Australia, Canada and Italy. Currently, he is Director of Instrumental Publications for The FJH Music Company and Assistant Director of Bands and Orchestras at Towson University.

Cait Nishimura - Biographical Information

Cait Nishimura (she/her) is a Canadian composer, musician, and educator based in Waterloo, Ontario. Known for writing melody-driven, programmatic music, Cait has quickly established herself as a prominent voice in the concert band community. With influences from minimalism and pop music, her work is full of simple yet lush harmonies, and themes that linger in listeners’ minds. As a lifelong environmentalist, she not only draws inspiration from the natural world but also uses her platform to advocate for conservation awareness and action.   Cait’s music has been presented at The Midwest Clinic, MusicFest Canada, and numerous other conferences and festivals across North America. Her work has become increasingly popular among educational music programs as well as within the professional new music scene, with new works being regularly commissioned and performed by ensembles and individuals around the world. Cait is committed to creating contemporary music that is approachable, relevant, and enjoyable for all, and she is passionate about setting a positive example for future generations of musicians– especially those from historically underrepresented groups– through her creative work, her social media presence, and her dedication to mental health awareness.  Cait was the winner of the Canadian Band Association’s composition prize in 2017. She holds degrees in music and education from the University of Toronto, but is an advocate of people pursuing their passions regardless of their field of study. 

Richard Saucedo - Biographical Information

Richard L. Saucedo retired in 2013 as Director of Bands and Performing Arts Department Chairman at the William H. Duke Center for the Performing Arts at Carmel High School in Carmel, Indiana. During his 31-year tenure, Carmel bands received numerous state, regional and national honors in the areas of concert band, jazz band and marching band. Carmel’s Wind Symphony I performed at the Midwest Clinic in 2005, as Carmel became one of the few schools to win a BOA Grand National Championship and perform at the Midwest Clinic in the same year. The Indiana Bandmasters Association named Mr. Saucedo Indiana’s “Bandmaster of the Year” for 1998-99 and he was named the “Outstanding Music Educator” in the state of Indiana for 2010 by the Indiana Music Educators Association. He was inducted into the Music for All “Hall of Fame” in 2015. Mr. Saucedo is a freelance arranger and composer, having released numerous marching band arrangements, choral arrangements, concert band works and orchestral compositions. He is currently on the writing staff at Hal Leonard Publishing. His concert band works have been performed all over the world. Mr. Saucedo travels the world as an adjudicator, keynote speaker, clinician and guest conductor. He has been a presenter at the Midwest Clinic numerous times. He has been an adjudicator, clinician or guest conductor in Singapore, Japan, Australia, Thailand, Canada, China and The Netherlands. Mr. Saucedo is an Educational Consultant for “Music for All” and “Bands of America”and is a senior clinician for the Conn-Selmer Division of Education.

Alex Shapiro - Biographical Information

ALEX SHAPIRO is known for her genre-blind acoustic and electroacoustic pieces, including a significant catalog of electroacoustic wind band works for musicians at all performance levels. Published by her company Activist Music LLC and distributed by Hal Leonard LLC, Alex’s music is heard daily in concerts and broadcasts across the U.S. and internationally, and can be found on over thirty commercially released recordings. Shapiro is noted for her seamless melding of live and recorded sounds, and for her innovative uses of multimedia in performance and music education. A widely published author and frequent guest lecturer on topics ranging from technology, copyright, diversity and inclusion, music education, and the music business, Alex advocates tirelessly for other artists. She is the Symphonic and Concert writer member of the Board of Directors of ASCAP, and serves on the Board of Directors of the ASCAP Foundation and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music. Alex has been a lead clinician at The Midwest Clinic and the Texas Music Educators Association, speaking about creative uses of technology in the field as well as equity topics. Among her many writings are the 2013 chapter, “Releasing a Student's Inner Composer” for the book, “Musicianship: Composing in Band and Orchestra,” and “Reaching Out and Bringing Women In” for the 2020 release, “The Horizon Leans Forward…Stories of Courage, Strength, and Triumph of Underrepresented Communities in the Wind Band Field,” both for GIA Publications.

Jim Stephenson - Biographical Information

Leading American orchestras, instrumentalists and wind ensembles around the world have performed the music of Chicago-based composer James M. Stephenson, both to critical acclaim and the delight of audiences. The composer is largely self-taught, making his voice truly individual and his life’s work all the more remarkable. Recent and upcoming premieres include the Chicago Symphony with Riccardo Muti, St. Louis (Robertson), Montreal, and Minnesota Orchestra (Vänskä), and the Cabrillo Festival (Macelaru), as well as the US “President’s Own” Marine Band (Col. Fettig). Over 150 orchestras and bands play his music annually. His recent CD - "Liquid Melancholy - the music of James Stephenson" (featuring Chicago Symphony clarinetist John Yeh) was a 2019 Grammy nominee for Best Engineered, Classical. Additionally, his monumental Symphony #2 - VOICES - has earned the esteemed Ostwald Award (2018) from the American Bandmasters Association, after just having won the 2017 National Band Association's annual Revelli Award. His 3rd symphony - VISIONS - received its premiere in April, 2019. The Memphis Symphony (Robert Moody) recorded his powerful and emotional “Concerto for Hope” (trumpet concerto #3) with soloist Ryan Anthony in the spring of 2019. After a recent 10-year stint as Composer-in-Residence with the Lake Forest Symphony, he has recently been named “Musical Collaborator” with the Grand Rapids Symphony for the 20-21 season, and Composer-in-Residence with the International Chamber Artists, for whom he will compose his first opera.

Omar Thomas - Biographical Information

Described as "elegant, beautiful, sophisticated, intense, and crystal clear in emotional intent," the music of Omar Thomas continues to move listeners everywhere it is performed. Born to Guyanese parents in Brooklyn, New York in 1984, Omar moved to Boston in 2006 to pursue a Master of Music in Jazz Composition at the New England Conservatory of Music after studying Music Education at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He is the protégé of lauded composers and educators Ken Schaphorst and Frank Carlberg, and has studied under multiple Grammy-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider. Hailed by Herbie Hancock as showing "great promise as a new voice in the further development of jazz in the future," educator, arranger, and award-winning composer Omar Thomas has created music extensively in the contemporary jazz ensemble idiom. It was while completing his Master of Music Degree that he was appointed the position of Assistant Professor of Harmony at Berklee College of Music at the surprisingly young age of 23. He was awarded the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award in 2008, and invited by the ASCAP Association to perform his music in their highly exclusive JaZzCap Showcase, held in New York City. In 2012, Omar was named the Boston Music Award's "Jazz Artist of the Year." Following his Berklee tenure, he served on faculty of the Music Theory department at The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Composition at The University of Texas at Austin.

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