Featured Author - Shelley M. Jagow
Associate Professor of Music at Wright State University is director of the Symphonic Band and Saxophone Quartet; and professor of Saxophone and Music Education courses. She earned Music Education degrees from the University of Saskatchewan (Canada) and the University of Missouri (Columbia). She earned her Ph. D. in Music Education at the Union Institute & University (Cincinnati) where Colonel Timothy Foley, Frank Battisti, and Edward Wingard served as her mentors. Dr. Jagow is a Selmer Artist Clinician for both saxophone and conducting.Read More.
Featured Author - Jim Childers
Jim Childers directed bands in Illinois public schools for over 33 years. Childers spent the majority of his career at Marion Junior High School, where he directed all band activities for Grades 6 through 8. Now in retirement, he is the musical director for the Southern Illinois Symphonic Winds, an invitational community band, and the Jazz Alliance, an exemplary regional big band. In the fall of 2024, he will be working for John A. Logan College as an adjunct professor. In addition to teaching, Mr. Childers has compiled and authored two books, Listening Excerpts to Develop Band Musicianship for concert band directors and Listening Excerpts to Develop Jazz Musicianship for jazz educators, both published by GIA Publications. Read More.
Featured Authors - Qorsho Hassan & Becca Buck
Qorsho Hassan is an educator, researcher, and community organizer. She has served as a classroom teacher for ten years and was named the Minnesota Teacher of the Year in 2020. Qorsho is the artist and co-author behind the exhibit and book Urur Dhex-Dhexaad Ah: Community In-Between, which presents color portraits, first-person video stories, and written narratives of Somalis living in Columbus, Ohio.Read More.
Rebecca Buck is a full time K–5 music teacher in ISD 191 (Burnsville-Eagan-Savage, Minnesota) living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received her Bachelor of Music in K–12 Vocal Music Education in 2012 and Master of Arts in Music Education with a concentration in Kodály in 2018, both from the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, Minnesota). She teaches in the Kodály Institute at the University of St. Thomas and serves as treasurer for the Kodály Chapter of Minnesota. Read More.
Featured Author - Tobin Stewart
Tobin Stewart, author of Leading as a Conductor: With Integrity of Heart and Skillful Hands, is a Professor of Music at Montana State University, where he conducts the symphony orchestra and teaches conducting and music education courses. His teaching experience includes positions ranging from middle school to college in Florida, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Montana.Read More.
Featured Authors - Connie Greenwood, Bron Lawson
Connie Greenwood, a FAME-endorsed First Steps in Music teacher, teacher trainer, mentor, and advocate, has taught birth to kindergarten music classes for over thirty years. Connie runs her own music business, Greenwood Music Services, LLC, and presently teaches birth to kindergarten music classes in several schools as well as First Steps in Music parent-child classes.Read More.
Bronwyn Lawson began singing as a tiny dot on her mother’s knee and hasn’t stopped since. An experienced and passionate early childhood music educator based in Geelong, Australia, she completed an honors degree in music therapy at the University of Melbourne and a postgraduate Bachelor of Education at Deakin University before developing a particular interest in teaching the very young. Read More.
Featured Author - Don Stinson
Don Stinson is a comprehensive music educator with a robust background spanning roles as an author, speaker, and clinician. He holds educational degrees from an array of prestigious institutions including Joliet Junior College, VanderCook College of Music, and Northern Illinois University. Adding to his educational background, Don also holds a Master’s in Education Administration from the University of St. Francis, bringing unparalleled expertise to his educational endeavors. Read More.
Featured Author - Jason Max Ferdinand
Jason Max Ferdinand serves as the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Maryland, College Park. He assumed the role in Fall of 2022. He is very humbled to be standing on the shoulders of his mentor, Edward Maclary, who has guided the choral program for 20+ years. Jason Max Ferdinand, Professor – Conductor – Composer – Speaker, is the founding artistic director of The Jason Max Ferdinand Singers: An Ensemble of Exceptional Talents, and was the director of choral activities, chair of the music department, and a full professor at Oakwood University, where he conducted the Aeolians of Oakwood University. Read More.
Featured Author - Paula A. Crider
Paula A. Crider continues to share her passion for making music through an active schedule as guest conductor, lecturer, clinician, and adjudicator. She has enjoyed engagements in forty-six states, as well as Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, France, Italy, and Australia. She is Professor Emerita at the University of Texas, where she was twice awarded the “Eyes of Texas” Award for distinguished teaching. Read More.
Featured Author - Robert Bode
Robert Bode joined the faculty at The Ohio State University School of Music in 2019 as a visiting professor of Choral Music. In 2010, Bode was named the Raymond Neevel Endowed Chair of Choral Music at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. Prior to coming to UMKC, Bode served on the faculty at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, where he was awarded the Thomas E. Howells Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Alma Meisnest Endowed Chair in the Humanities. His choirs have performed at both regional and national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association, the Missouri Music Educators Association, and Chorus America. Read More.
Featured Author - John Nieto
John Nieto is the mariachi director at Brackenridge High School in San Antonio, a position he has held since 1990. He also serves as the lead mariachi instructor for San Antonio ISD, of which he is a graduate. He currently serves as arranger/copyist/instructor for the Albuquerque Mariachi Spectacular (21 years) and previously taught at similar workshops in Tucson, Arizona, and Las Cruces, New Mexico. John has been a guest clinician for Region Mariachi clinics throughout the state of Texas. Read More.
Featured Author - Mary Land
Dr. Mary Land is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Instrumental Music Education at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She conducts the University Concert Band and teaches courses in instrumental music education. Prior to this appointment, she was Director of Bands and Instrumental Music Education at Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia. Before moving to higher education, Dr. Land was a public-school band director in Georgia for over twenty-nine years where she developed an outstanding band program in Pickens County, Georgia. Bands under Dr. Land’s direction have received invitations to perform at many music conferences and clinics. Read More.
Featured Author - David Kish
A native of Hershey, Pennsylvania, is Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music at Metropolitan State University in Denver where he conducts the Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, and teaches conducting and music education courses. He serves as a Faculty Fellow in the Center for Innovation, is founding director of the Metro State Wind Band Celebration, and is a recipient of the Faculty Senate Teaching Excellence Award. David has taught instrumental music at all educational levels including a position as Associate Director of Bands and Franklin Fellow at the University of Georgia. His writings on wind literature, conducting pedagogy, and music education have been published in The Instrumentalist Magazine, Journal of Band Research, Music Educators Journal, Tempo, and three volumes of the popular resource texts, Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. Read More.
