School of Music to represent at educators conference

Faculty will present, ensembles will perform at NCMEA

Two East Carolina University School of Music ensembles will perform, and multiple faculty will present, at a statewide conference this weekend.

The NC Music Educators Association will hold its annual conference Nov. 8-11 in Winston-Salem, with the theme “Beyond the Notes: Shaping Our Future.” Two of the School of Music’s (SOM) performing ensembles were invited to perform during the conference. Both concerts are free and open to the public:

• Sunday, Nov. 9: ECU Jazz Ensemble-(A), 3 p.m. at the Benton Convention Center, 301 W. 5th St., Winston-Salem
• Monday, Nov. 10: ECU Chamber Singers, 1 p.m. at the Centenary United Methodist Church, 646 W. 5th St., Winston-Salem

Dr. James Franklin, director of SOM choral activities directs the Chamber Singers, and Kobie Watkins, jazz studies and jazz drums professor directs Jazz Ensemble-(A). Both will attend the conference with their award-winning ensembles.

Watkins said this is the first time his group of 18 students will perform at the NCMEA conference, and that most of ECU’s jazz faculty will perform with them. He said the ensemble will play various levels of music — from middle school, high school and college levels — so teachers and students can hear a variety.

“It’s a concert, but it’s also a clinic and workshop,” Watkins said.

Watkins said the group is excited to perform, and said he hopes the audience of students and educators are inspired to come to ECU, no matter the music program that might interest them.

“My top goal is that everyone walks away saying, ‘That band is really swinging!'” he said. “(ECU is) somewhere I’d love to go, and study and play music.”

The most recent performances from the Chamber Singers and Jazz Ensemble-(A) from this semester, as well as previous performances, are available on the SOM YouTube channel.

Along with the performances, the SOM’s music education faculty will attend the conference to present “ECU: Getting Your Masters Online,” a roundtable discussion they present annually about the SOM music education master’s degree. SOM leaders believe it was the first online music education graduate degree available in North Carolina, starting in 2004.

Presenting during that discussion will be Theresa Hoover, Dr. Jay Juchniewicz, Dr. Tim Nowak, Dr. Raychl Smith, and Dr. Andrea VanDeusen.

In addition, four of the faculty members will present during additional sessions:

• Hoover: “Tech-Savvy Ensembles: Using Technology to Enhance Rehearsal Engagement” with Dr. Michelle Rose from Catawba College
• Nowak: “Small and Rural Schools Roundtable: Real Talk, Real Solutions” with Michael Henderson from Chase High School and Dr. Daniel C. Johnson from UNC Wilmington; “Music Education in Rural America: Perspective and Practices” with Johnson; and “Creativity and Critical Thinking in Large Ensembles”
• Smith: “Popular Music Jam Session No. 2”
• VanDeusen: “Rehearsal Strategies for the Middle School Classroom”

Also on the presentation schedule are more than a dozen Pirate alumni, mostly from the SOM: Kim Barclift ’99, Molly Griffin Brown ’21 (and a current master’s in music education student), Alex Busby ’20, Casey Collins ’18, Joseph Girgenti ’18, Maggie Hemedinger ’22, AmyBith Gardner Harlee ’94, Bill Holmes ’15, Debbie Seykora O’Connell ’94, Ben Reyes ’16 and ’20, Jesse Shelton ’19, David Tyson ’17, Joey Walker ’08, Rodney Workman ’23; plus Andrew Beach, a current online master’s in music education student.