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Higher Education News

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The Ohio State University School of Music

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Ohio State welcomes several new faculty — Dr. Aleksandra (Sasha) Drozzina, Assistant Professor of Music Theory; Dr. Andrii Isakov, Visiting Assistant Professor of Violin; Julia Yang, Visiting Assistant Professor of Cello; Dr. Tina Tallon, Assistant Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Music Composition; Abigail Bachelor, harp and Michael Shirtz, voice.
The 2024 edition of Ohio State’s Youth Summer Music Programs, directed by Dr. David Hedgecoth, welcomed over 600 students to campus. Students enjoyed studying and performing with our faculty, students and guest alumni. In September, Ohio State hosted the “Can I Kick It?” Festival, to showcase the developing Hip Hop curriculum in the School of Music and Department of African American and African Studies. The first annual High School Honor String Orchestra Weekend, led by Dr. Heather Lofdahl, strings education, and Director of Orchestras, Miriam Burns, was held in October. This new event promises to become a favorite, joining the popular Ohio State High School Honor Jazz Band and High School Honor Band weekends.
The newly-launched Community Music School offers music instruction in person and online to children and adults in the Columbus area through private instruction, classes and ensembles.
The Men’s Glee Club, the oldest music ensemble at Ohio State, will celebrate its sesquicentennial (150th) year with numerous performances, including at Lincoln Center in New York and a Gala Concert with the Bowling Green State University and Michigan University Men’s Glee Clubs. In May, the Wind Symphony, led by Dr. Russel C. Mikkelson, will embark on a performance tour to Japan; and the Women’s Glee Club, led by Jordan Saul, will perform at Carnegie Hall. The Flute Troupe, led by Professor Katherine Borst Jones, looks forward to performing at OMEA in Cleveland, in February.

University of Akron

The University of Akron is excited to welcome several new faculty members to campus. As a native of Virginia, Dr. Michelle Bell, Assistant Band Director & Director of Athletic Bands, comes to us after finishing her D.M.A. in wind conducting at the University of Illinois. Dr. Kateri Miller, Assistant Professor of Music Education, completed her Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky. As an elementary music specialist with extensive classroom experience, she is certified in multiple pedagogies, including Orff, Kodaly, and Dalcroze Eurhythmics. Both Drs. Bell and Miller will be presenting at this year’s OMEA conference.
Dr. Michelle Bell
Kateri Miller, Assistant Professor of Music Education
Zaire Darden joins our growing jazz faculty as a specialist in jazz drumset. Justin Evangelist, saxophone, is ABD at the University of Oklahoma and has returned to assist with teaching in the saxophone studio. Michael McGroarty recently completed a choral conducting master’s degree at Akron and returns as Visiting Director of Choral Activities. Michele Monigold, recently retired from Jackson Local Schools, is assisting with student teacher supervision.
We are also pleased to announce that Dr. Todd Gaffke, saxophone, was named Interim Director of the School of Music and the School of Dance, Theater and Arts Administration, and Dr. Galen Karriker, Director of Bands, was named Interim Associate Director.
Our faculty continues to enjoy notable successes. Justin Evangelist and Todd Gaffke were members of a commissioning consortium for a new saxophone and clarinet piece, Convergence by Dustin Schulze, premiered this spring at the North American Saxophone Alliance conference.
Chris Coles and Zaire Darden, jazz faculty, performed in May with the Cleveland area Contemporary Youth Orchestra. Coles’ piece Nine Lives Project, as well as When Still by Dana Hall, which is based on Coles’ Nine Lives Project, were featured.
Finally, new American Bandmasters Association member Galen Karriker conducted the Cleveland Orchestra’s Blossom Festival Band this past July.

Kent State University

We are thrilled to welcome three new members to our full-time faculty:
Dr. Matthew Swope has been appointed Director of Choral Activities, having previously taught classes at the University of Cincinnati, Rollins College, and Winter Park High School (FL). He earned his DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Cincinnati and holds MM and BA degrees from Penn State University.

Dr. Isaac Terceros
Dr. Isaac Terceros, founder and artistic director of the Santa Cruz Philharmonic in Bolivia, has been appointed Director of Orchestras and joins the artistic team of Kent Blossom Music Festival. Having completed his doctoral degree in Orchestral Conducting from Indiana University, he is excited to contribute to KSU's rich musical tradition and to the vibrant local community.
Dr. Suyeon Ko
Dr. Suyeon Ko serves as the Assistant Professor of Flute and holds the position of second flute at the Des Moines Metro Opera. Dr. Ko is also a founding member of Volante Winds, which toured extensively across the United States and East Asia. She earned her Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University and previously held an assistant professorship at Western Illinois University. Dr. Ko is excited to engage with the vibrant music scene in Ohio and make meaningful contributions to its artistic community.
KSU Music Education hosted another successful summer of professional development classes bringing 70 teachers from 10 states for courses in Orff Schulwerk, Rock Band Pedagogy, and Kodaly-based Song Research. We look forward to announcing our courses for summer 2025 soon and hope you will join us on campus!
Kent State was well represented at the 36th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Music Education this summer in Helsinki, Finland. Craig Resta attended along with doctoral students Shawna Hinkle, Melissa Aleman, and Will Kish. Shawna displayed a poster United in Harmony: Intergenerational Community Choirs in the Midwestern United States. Will and Melissa co-led a session Making Co-Teaching Work: Research-Based and Practical Ideas to Maximize Student Learning. Will and Shawna read research-in-progress at the History Standing Committee workshop, of which Dr. Resta is a member and mentor. Craig also displayed a poster on Social Justice in Orchestra and Music Education: Preparing Teachers in United States Context. This was a valuable opportunity to interact with ISME members and pedagogues from 80+ countries.
Among Korea's music education community there is growing interested in Gordon's Music Learning Theory. As President of the Gordon Institute for Music Learning, Dr. Butch Marshall traveled to Korea to meet enthusiastic scholars. He led workshops at the Seoul National University of Education. He was a featured speaker at the Korean Music Education Association's national conference, in historic Jeonju, Korea. It was an exciting visit filled with lots of formal and informal pedagogy discussions, sight-seeing and culinary adventures. We congratulate Dr. Marshall on this accomplishment and for being awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor of Music Education for the 2024-25 academic year.

Ohio University

The College of Fine Arts and partnering departments across Ohio University invite creative researchers, teachers and practitioners in the arts to address the theme of “Intersections: Arts and Health,” as part of the 5th Global Arts Symposium to be held March 31- April 45 4-5, 2025 at Ohio University.
This year’s keynote speaker is Dr. Marisol Norris, Founder and CEO of the Black Music Therapy Network, Inc., and director of the Music Therapy and Counseling Master’s Program at Drexel University. She is a leading scholar-activist in music therapy whose work centers on musical placemaking within Black communities. Dr. Norris teaches internationally on the human need for wholeness and the liberatory function of artistic processes to deepen the capacity for relational experience. Her work has been featured in media outlets, including Rolling Stone and Vogue, and has contributed to the international discourse of applied music-based research through platforms such as The Sound Health Network.
Past years keynote lectures have featured seminal composer, Dr. Mark Phillips in 2023, Ben Dotsei Malor in 2022 and Dr. Kofi Agawu in 2024. The 5th Global Arts Festival Symposium explores the intersections of art and health. This Symposium brings together artists, educators, healthcare professionals, policymakers, and researchers to share innovative approaches and cutting-edge research. The Symposium is not just a gathering; it's a catalyst for change. It's a platform to discover how the arts transform healthcare and how healthcare informs it. Join us to ignite creativity, foster collaboration, and reimagine the future of arts and health. We anticipate an audience of approximately [500-700] attendees.

We are eagerly awaiting proposals, that cover the following areas:
  • Arts in Healthcare (performing, literary, visual arts, and design)
  • Role of Arts in Community Development
  • Arts in Traditional, Complementary, and Alternative Healing Practices
  • Performing Arts Medicine
  • Arts and Wellness
  • Arts and Mental Health
  • Human-centered Design
  • Creative Arts Therapies
    • Arts and Public Health
    • Medical Humanities
    • Arts in Community Health
    • Arts and Medicine
  • Arts and Self-care
  • Arts and Psychology
  • Interdisciplinary Arts and Health
  • Artistic Interventions for Children
  • Artistic Interventions after COVID-19 and other Global Pandemics
Your ideas and contributions are what make this Symposium truly special. We welcome a variety of formats, including individual papers, roundtables, workshops, panels, posters, performances, films, and other research and creative activity forms.
The symposium is accepting submissions on a rolling basis through December 15, 2024. Find the full Call for Papers details and submit online, Early submissions are highly encouraged.
Those with questions can contact Festival and Symposium Director, Prof. Paschal Younge at youngep@ohio.edu.