2023 MMC SESSION HEADLINERS

MASTA - Michigan Chapter of the American String Teachers Association

 

Rachel Barton Pine

Heralded as a leading interpreter of the great classical masterworks, violinist Rachel Barton Pine thrills audiences with her dazzling technique, lustrous tone, and emotional honesty. With an infectious joy in music-making and a passion for connecting historical research to performance, Pine transforms audiences’ experiences of classical music.

Pine performs with the world's leading orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, and the Chicago, Vienna, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. She has worked with renowned conductors, including Teddy Abrams, Marin Alsop, Semyon Bychkov, Neeme Järvi, Erich Leinsdorf, Nicholas McGegan, Zubin Mehta, Tito Muñoz, and John Nelson.

She frequently performs music by contemporary composers, including major works written for her by Billy Childs, Mohammed Fairouz, Marcus Goddard, Earl Maneein, Shawn E. Okpebholo, Daniel Bernard Roumain, José Serebrier, and Augusta Read Thomas. In addition to her career as a soloist, she is an avid performer of baroque, renaissance, and medieval music on baroque violin, viola d’amore, renaissance violin, and rebec.

She has appeared on The Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, CNN, PBS NewsHour, A Prairie Home Companion, and NPR’s Tiny Desk, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times.

Last season, Rachel amazed fans worldwide, when with just 3 1/2 hours notice, she stepped in at Ravinia, to perform Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Maestra Marin Alsop conducting, when the soloist Midori had to pull out at the last minute due to illness.

She has recorded 40 acclaimed albums, many of which have hit the top of the charts. In September 2022, Cedille Records releases her Violin Concertos by Black Composers Through the Centuries: 25th Anniversary Edition, which features a new recording of Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra & Jonathon Heyward.

She holds prizes from several of the world’s leading competitions, including a gold medal at the 1992 J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany.

Her RBP Foundation assists young artists through its Instrument Loan Program and Grants for Education and Career, and since 2001, has run the groundbreaking Music by Black Composers project.

Sessions:

MASTA Headliner #1 - Favorite Warm-ups from the Vamos Tradition- Friday, 2:00 PM - 2:45 PM

MASTA Headliner #2 - Music by Black Composers: A Treasure Trove for Expanding Your Repertoire- Friday, 3:00 PM - 3:45 PM

MASTA Headliner #3 - Improv Games for Everyone - Saturday, 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM

MASTA Headliner #4 - From Fydell to Violin: The Amazing History of String Instruments- Saturday, 3:00 PM - 3:45 PM

 

MMEA - Michigan Music Education Association

Juanda Marshall

Juanda’s mission is to “Help others know the joy of making music and to know how music can be a powerful and exciting part of their lives.” She has lived out this mission, teaching music to students aged 2 through adult for over 30 years.
Juanda fell in love with singing early and began performing music in the church as a child. She subsequently served as music director for several churches.

After she received a BM degree from the University of Portland in Oregon, she taught music on the Monterey Peninsula in California. Juanda later focused on music integration to receive her Masters in Elementary Education from the University of San Francisco.

A move from the Monterey Peninsula to Los Angeles provided her the chance to perform in show business. Her voice, being flexible and wide-ranging, gave her the opportunity to perform with the world-renowned “LA Jubilee Singers” and the Grammy-nominated “Los Angeles Jazz Choir.” She has also been featured in classical concerts, musical theatre and opera productions. Juanda brings her show business experience into her teaching practice in her lesson design and through coaching her students toward their performance.

Currently, Juanda teaches music to PK-5th grade students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. She previously was selected to a “Peer Coach” position and provided ongoing support to music teachers. She also has been a key writer for music curriculum at LAUSD.

Juanda is an active presenter on the local and national levels. Most recently her sessions have focused on her activities and approach about how to make culture matter for students. This approach focuses not only on adding inclusive curriculum and historical context. It also pertains to creating an environment of trust, risk-taking, and collaboration. She believes it is important that students are able to identify with authentic real-world connections that are meaningful for them.

Juanda has received recognition from the Los Angeles City Elementary Schools Music Association which awarded her with an Honorary Life Membership. She credits her National Board Certification and Kodály Certification with providing her with powerful professional growth experiences. Her work toward these accomplishments has guided her to success and she has gained a greater understanding of how to make a positive difference for her students and the teachers that she mentors. Juanda's passion for music education has led her to many wonderful adventures and she is looking forward to many more.

Sessions:

MMEA Headliner #1 - MAKE “MY” CULTURE MATTER: Students want to know that they matter and that they are valued. - Friday, 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM

MMEA Headliner #2 - CREATING A CLASSROOM CULTURE: Create a classroom that feels welcome joyful and safe through lesson plans, routines, games, and activities. - Friday, 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM

MMEA Headliner #3 - BOLD ADVENTURES INTO STUDENT AGENCY: The future is bright when we see our students thriving independently. - Saturday, 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM

MMEA Headliner #4 - CULTIVATING A VISION: Great things happen when we clearly define our vision. - Saturday, 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM

 

MSBOA - Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association

Scott N. Edgar

Dr. Scott N. Edgar (he/him) has dedicated his career to highlighting the potential music education and educators have to build life skills students will utilize long after they leave the classroom. As a notable authority on music education and Social Emotional Learning, Dr. Edgar has emerged as the leading researcher, best-selling author, and internationally sought-after clinician on the subject. He is the author of Music Education and Social Emotional Learning: The Heart of Teaching Music, The ABCs of My Feelings and Music (co-authored with his wife Stephanie), and editor of Portraits of Music Education and Social Emotional Learning (published through GIA Publications).

Dr. Edgar prioritizes facilitating spaces where people can explore their identity, build a sense of belonging, and experience agency. He is grateful for the many experiences he has had at Bowling Green State University (B.M.E.), University of Dayton, (M.S.), and the University of Michigan (Ph.D.) to learn from his mentors.

He is Associate Professor of Music, Chair of the Department of Music, and Director of Bands at Lake Forest College, and serves as Director of Practice and Research for The Center for Arts Education and Social Emotional Learning. Dr. Edgar is also a Music for All Educational Consultant, a Conn-Selmer Educational Clinician, and VH1 Save the Music Foundation Educational Consultant. Striving for work/life balance, he enjoys grilling, exercising, and spending time with his wife Steph and their son Nathan.

Sessions:

MSBOA Headliner #1 - Building Identity, Belonging, and Agency Through Musical SEL - Friday, 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM

MSBOA Headliner #2 - Strategies for Reconnecting and Building Relationships Through Social Emotional Learning in Music Education - Friday, 1:00 PM - 1:45 PM

 

MSVMA - Michigan School Vocal Music Association

Dr. Derrick Fox

Dr. Derrick Fox is the Director of Choral Activities and Distinguished Associate Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He earned a BME from Arkansas State University, a MM in Choral Conducting from the University of Missouri – Columbia and a DMA in Choral Conducting from Michigan State University, where he was awarded the prestigious University Enrichment Graduate Fellowship. Dr. Fox has taught at the middle school, high school and collegiate levels. His conducting experiences have included singers from upper elementary choirs through collegiate and community choirs. Recently, he was awarded the 2021 Bryan R. Johnson Service Award by the Nebraska Music Educators Association and the 2022 University of Nebraska Omaha Award for Distinguished Research/Creative Activity.

Dr. Fox has conducted all state choirs, led international, national and regional choral concerts/residencies and presented professional development workshops across the United States and internationally. His professional workshops focus on assessment in the choral classroom, building classroom community, rehearsal strategies, choral conducting techniques and shape note singing in the African American community. Dr. Fox has held teaching residencies and workshops at the Latvian Academy of Music, Syracuse University, Michigan State University and the University of Missouri - Columbia. He has also led performance tours through Lithuania and Estonia. In 2019, he conducted National ACDA Middle School/Junior High Mixed Honor Choir and traveled to South Africa as a 2019 ACDA International Conductor Exchange Fellow where he led choral workshops and rehearsals in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Potchefstroom. His recent engagements include presentations at Choral Canada's Podium Conference, the National Federation of Ghanian Choirs Inaugural Choral Conference and the Public Administration Theory International Conference in Mexico ; as well as conducting all state choirs in Oregon, Wyoming, Georgia, Kansas, South Carolina and Virginia.

As a baritone soloist, Dr. Fox has collaborated with various organizations; among them are the Arkansas Symphony, Lansing Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Columbia Chorale, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha Symphonic Chorus, University of Missouri, Michigan State University, Webster University and the Espaço Cultural (Brasilia, Brazil). He can be heard singing selections from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess on the compact disc In This Hid Clearing, available on the Naxos Classical Music label.

As an author, Dr. Fox has written articles for many organizations and was a contributing author in the Hal Leonard/McGraw Hill choral textbook Voices in Concert. His compositions and arrangements are published by Hal Leonard and Brilee Music. His book, Yes You Can: A Band Director’s Guide to Teaching Choirs is published by Carl Fischer. He launched The Derrick Fox Choral Series with Music Spoke to publish works by and about marginalized and minoritized people. He created the Professional Choral Collective (PCC) to collect and create learning activities and teaching strategies for choral music educators around the world to use during the 2020 Coronavirus virus pandemic and beyond. He also partnered with the Country Music Association Foundation to create the Unified Voices for Music Education Initiative which provides learning activities for instrumental and elementary music educators.

Dr. Fox serves on the advisory board for the Sound Spirit, a research lab and publishing initiative promoting collaborative engagement with the songbooks that sound America’s musical landscape. He is also a member of the advisory board for the Choral Singing in America documentary series. https://www.drderrickfox.com/

Sessions:

MSVMA Headliner #1: Diversity and Inclusion in Action - Friday, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

MSVMA Headliner #2: Diversity and Inclusion in Action: Exploring Repertoire – Friday, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

MSVMA Headliner #3 - The P.A.S.S.I.O.N.A.T.E Choral Director's Guide to Longevity in the Classroom - Saturday, 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM