Music Education at Illinois

Congratulations to MME student, Yawen Hu, on presenting her capstone project, “Curriculum Design for a High School Guqin Elective Course in China.”

Big congratulations to Illinois PhD student, Katie Toler, on her successful dissertation proposal defense today! Officially ABD; officially a doctoral candidate!! Woot!! 🧡💙

Congratulations to Master of Music Education student, Eric Brown, on the successful defense of his thesis, "Perspectives and Practices of a Hip Hop Music Educator" today!

Congratulations to M.M.E student, Lydia Armour, on the successful defense of her master’s thesis, “Breaking the Silence: A Multiple Case Study Exploring Students’ Decisions for Discontinuing Their Participation in Public School Band.” A special thank you to Lydia’s committee members, Drs. Jess Mullen, Michael Vecchio, and Bridget Sweet-Manternach.

Earlier this week, we had the pleasure of welcoming Dave Morrison to MUS 344, where he worked with our instrumental music education students. Thank you for sharing your time and expertise!

Congratulations to Music Education Ph.D. student, Chenyu Li, for presenting her paper, “Meritocracy and the Shifting Boundaries Between Popular and Classical Music in Mainland Chinese Music Education” at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting!

The marvelous Matt Temple visited Dr. Vecchio’s MUS 344 Instrumental Methods for Secondary Ensembles class to explore all things CMP within instrumental music teaching. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with our students!

Huge thanks to two amazing humans who spoke with Healthy Music Practices in the last week. Illinois Prof. of Voice, Yvonne Redman, taught us about hearing health and wellness, and shared her own research on hearing health and acoustics. Registered dietitian, Michaela Kruse, taught us about mindfulness, intentional eating, and nutrition. It is always *incredible* to learn from these two powerhouses!!

Congratulations to The University of Illinois School of Music alum, Dr. Heather Baker, on being named Rockford area's Gold Apple Outstanding Principal!! So proud of you and all the wonderful work you do for so many! 💙🧡 I-L-L!!

Congratulations to music education doctoral student, Katie Toler, on her roundtable presentation, “Exploring the Role of Music in Preschool Classrooms” at The 17th Annual College of Education Graduate Student Conference!