New Summer Workshops for Music Education

March 2011

Popular Music Songwriting and Working with Rock Bands are only two of the new titles added to the roster of courses available this summer through the Department of Music Education. Dr. Carlos Xavier Rodriguez, new chair of the Department, has created Working with Rock Bands, bringing in a guest from London, Gareth Dylan Smith, a drummer whose musical influences include prog, jazz, fusion, and classic rock.

Dr. Betty Anne Younker will head up Popular Music Songwriting, with exercises to encourage song creation and sharing, and vocabulary development for song analysis. Younker will bring in well-known guitarist and Ann Arbor singer & songwriter Dick Siegel.

New music ed faculty member Michael Hopkins, with Bob Phillips of Alfred Publishing and Judy Palac from Michigan State, will teach the Michigan String Workshop, an intensive three-day experience designed to immerse participants in all areas of string education. Hopkins is the author of the award winning Web site The String Pedagogy Notebook (http://www.stringtechnique.com/).

Other new features this summer are Developing Choral Sound through Diction & Pedagogy, by Julie Skadsem, music ed faculty member and director of the Women’s Glee Club, Jazz Improvisation Pedagogy, taught by Ellen Rowe, jazz pianist and chair of U-M’s jazz department, and Advanced Music Technology, taught by Mary Simoni, professor of performing arts technology.

Application deadlines for these and other classes are coming up as early as May. To see the full menu, visit http://www.music.umich.edu/special_programs/adult/index.htm or for more information, please contact Regina Ferguson at rcferg@umich.edu or 734-5429.