<p> The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of standards-based assessment practices within a music performance curriculum. This pre-survey, post-survey experimental treatment included 169 students, 97 parents, and 3 teachers from 3 school districts across Wisconsin. The results from this study indicated that music teachers rely on a variety of assessment strategies to monitor student achievement regardless of if they are using standards-based assessment practices; however, teachers who used standards-based assessment were more likely to use formal assessments to determine student achievement and were more likely to assess students both formally and informally on a regular basis. Furthermore, when standards-based practices were implemented students' awareness of the learning target increased. Students also became less reliant on teacher feedback in determining their success but valued the feedback that was received at a higher level. Finally, parents relied on both online gradebooks, and conversations with their child regarding student achievement. </p>

<p> This work explores the occurrence of school sponsored rock music ensembles and pedagogy in secondary education within the state of New Jersey. The purpose of this research was three&ndash;fold: 1) to document the occurrence of rock music performance ensembles in New Jersey secondary schools, 2) to highlight the details of a select group representing a sample of these programs, and 3) to contribute to the body of knowledge relating to rock music in the school curriculum. A two part, mixed&ndash;methods research process involved the use of both a quantitative survey instrument and a qualitative interview process. The part one survey was distributed to 720 public secondary schools across the state of New Jersey. Questions were written to seek data regarding school population, budget, types of music programs available to students, regional classifications, and enrollment. Based on survey data, five programs, in which students learn and perform rock music using authentic rock music instrumentation, were selected for part two faculty interviews. These interviews uncovered reasons for the existence of these programs (i.e. teacher and student interest), information about student participation, instrumentation, relationships to the other music programs within the school, intended outcomes, measures of success, and the existence of authentic learning, informal learning practices, and the concept of bi&ndash;musicality.</p>

<p> The rate of playing-related neuromusculoskeletal disorders (PRNDs) in advanced pianists remains consistently high worldwide, often limiting or ending study and playing careers. Injured pianists&mdash;desperate for solutions&mdash;seek out allegedly scientifically-informed approaches to developing injury-preventive technique but none of these approaches have been seriously investigated. This mixed-methods study investigated one interdisciplinary, non-traditional approach (the &ldquo;Method&rdquo;) that had received considerable anecdotal support but had not been studied systematically to ascertain its efficacy in recovering from and preventing recurrence of PRNDs, as well as its effects on technique, musicality, and extra-musical factors. Participants included undergraduate and graduate students, independent piano teachers, college teachers, and professional pianists and organists who had studied the Method for at least two academic semesters between 1990 and 2015. An anonymous survey was administered to 103 pianists and organists aged 22 to 82, with 74 (<i>N</i>=74) pianists responding (71.8%), and 26 pianists and organists were interviewed in-depth. Survey and interview results established that participants perceived the Method as significantly helpful in facilitating recovery from PRNDs. Significance of relationships among codes included correlations of .70 between the code &ldquo;it works&rdquo; and &ldquo;playing without injury,&rdquo; and .66 between &ldquo;it works&rdquo; and &ldquo;playing again.&rdquo; Interviewees also perceived the Method as helpful in preventing recurrence of PRNDs, as shown by the high correlation between the codes &ldquo;will help prevent injuries&rdquo; and &ldquo;learned a lot from studying the Method&rdquo; (.67). A one-sample t-test performed on the survey data also showed a positive perception (p &lt; .001) of the Method in helping recovery from and prevention of recurrence of PRNDs. Additionally, both the survey and interview participants reported improvement of technique and musicality with many also reporting enhancement of their extra-musical lives. A one-sample t-test on the survey data showed these improvements to be significant at a 5% level or better. Research also yielded data on psychological, emotional, and professional challenges to learning the Method, as well as reactions to specific aspects of the Method. It is hoped that the data might serve as a baseline and become a useful model for the investigation of other approaches for teaching injury-preventive piano technique.</p>

<p> I. Solo Recital: Friday, April 11, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Taylor Theatre. <i> Cendrillon</i> (Jules Massanet) Opera Role. </p><p> II. Solo Recital: Saturday, February 8, 2014, 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall. "Warum betr&uuml;bst du dich," "Wilst du dein Herz mir schenken" (Johann Sebastian Bach); Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 (Hector Villa-Lobos); "Kennst du das Land" (Hugo Wolf); "Kennst du das Land" (John Duke); "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt" (Robert Schumann); "Net tolko tot kto znal;" (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky); "Aime-moi" (Pauline Viardot); "Vaga Luna" (Vincenzo Bellini); "Aragonese" (Gioacchino Rossini); "Befreit," "Ruhe Meine Seele," "St&auml;ndchen," "Amor" (Richard Strauss). </p><p> III. Solo Recital: Thursday, March 5, 2015, 7:30pm., Recital Hall. "Youkali," "J'attends un navire," "Wie lange noch?," "Come up from the Fields, Father" (Kurt Weill); "Tom Sails Away" (Charles Ives); "Le disparu," "Bleuet," "C," "F&ecirc;tes galantes" (Francis Poulenc); Ariettes Oubli&eacute;es (Claude Debussy); Cabaret Songs (Benjamin Britten); "Waldseligkeit," "Selige Nacht," "Hat dich die Liebe ber&uuml;hrt" (Joseph Marx). </p><p> IV. D.M.A. Research Project. CROSSING OVER: EXAMINING THE CHALLENGES OF A CLASSICALLY TRAINED FEMALE PERFORMING MUSIC THEATER REPERTOIRE. This document explores the pedagogy of a classically trained singer as well as that of a music theater performer exploring similarities and differences. Musical examples are referenced throughout. A discussion of style of the megamusical and the 21st century musical provides context. A final chapter on repertoire suitable for bridging the styles provides a reference for the teacher and singer.</p>

<p> As rapid demographic change transforms American classrooms, incongruities between the ways culturally diverse students are accustomed to learning and those emphasized in educational institutions can present barriers to learning. This study investigated culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP), a teaching approach that seeks to ameliorate such incongruities by basing instruction upon students' cultural knowledge, frames of reference, and preferred learning, communication, and performance styles (Gay, 2002). To complement studies that examine teachers' perceptions of CRP, this study sought to illuminate student perspectives. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to explore adolescent choral students' perceptions of culturally responsive teaching in an urban community children's choir. Research questions focused on how students perceived their choir experiences to be informed by cultural diversity, the barriers to CRP they identified, and how CRP influenced relationships between students' musical and cultural identities. </p><p> A multiple embedded case study design was used to investigate students' perceptions of CRP as practiced in three demographically contrasting choirs within an urban children's choir organization. Within each choir site, one teacher and three student participants framed the analysis. Data generation methods included semi-structured interviews, ethnographic field notes, autobiographical notes, and collection of material culture. </p><p> Students perceived their choral instruction to be culturally responsive in that their classroom experiences promoted understanding and appreciation of their own cultures while broadening their cultural, musical, and intellectual horizons. They identified three barriers to CRP: educators' lack of comfort teaching diverse music, the complexity of students' cultural identities, and the challenges involved in practicing CRP equitably given constraints on instructional time. In one site, experiences with diverse music were peripheral to a Eurocentric core curriculum and did not promote connections between students' musical and cultural identities. There, the discourses associated with Western classical singing defined students' identities and alienated some students from the belief that they were musicians. Two sites incorporated a greater range of discourse norms associated with singing diverse musics and featured greater responsiveness toward the cultural backgrounds of particular students. In those sites, CRP fostered intersections between students' musical and cultural identities by meaningfully bridging their musical experiences inside and outside of the classroom.</p>

<p> Choro is a traditional Brazilian music that began in Rio de Janeiro during the latter half of the nineteenth century. A virtuosic instrumental music, choro developed through Brazilian interpretations of European dance genres, especially polka and waltz. Participation by both amateur and professional musicians characterizes choro's traditional pedagogy, a reflection of informal and formal learning processes and contexts. At the turn of the twenty-first century, choro schools now offer venues for defining and validating the tradition as well as inspiring an atmosphere for innovation and creation. Inherent within the concept of tradition is the dichotomy of continuity and change. This study exposes how institutions negotiate the past and present through a comparison of current and historic pedagogy and modes of learning. Choro institutions use traditional and innovative modes of learning to support and enhance the genre's current practice through community organization, which sustains and contributes to its continued performance. Chapter one focuses on defining choro music, first discussing the etymology of the word 'choro,' followed by a survey of choro's history and review of choro literature. The chapter concludes with an explanation of this investigation's purpose. In chapter two I posit the notion that a music community practices and performs choro. Biographies and stories of choro's past and present community members reveal how they learned choro. The chapter ends with an analysis of the processes that establish and reinforce the community. Chapter three examines how people learn choro. I offer prevailing learning perspectives&mdash;acquisition, participation, and knowledge creation&mdash;and establish categories for modes of learning&mdash;formal, non-formal, and informal&mdash;to define the processes and contexts involved in learning choro. Chapter four discusses the musical codes that characterize choro, what the choro community describes as a musical language. The chapter ends with a description of the curriculum at Escola Portatil de Musica, the school case study used for this dissertation. Chapter five is the summation and conclusions, revealing why musicians learn choro music.</p>

<p> This is a study of the development and validation of a rubric to enhance performer feedback for undergraduate vocal solo performance. In the literature, assessment of vocal performance is under-represented, and the value of feedback from the assessment of musical performances, from the point of view of the performer, is nonexistent. The research questions guiding this study were 1) What are the appropriate performance criteria, learning outcomes, and meaningful descriptors for various levels of proficiency for undergraduate solo vocal performance? and 2) How do students perceive their use of the feedback from the solo vocal performance rubric to improve future performances? The three groups of stakeholders of the project were voice professors from the research institution who assisted in the development of the rubric; students from the research institution who provided performance excerpts and shared their perceptions about the quality of the feedback; and voice professors from outside the research institution who used the rubric to assess the student performances. Mixed-methods participatory action research was the method used to conduct the study. </p><p> Interviews with five experts aided the development of a criteria-specific rubric, which defined performance criteria, learning outcomes, and meaningful descriptors for various levels of proficiency for undergraduate students of singing. The rubric was distributed, along with 20 recordings comprised of 14 students, two professionals, and four repeated student performances, to voice professors who used the rubric to score the performances and provided feedback about the instrument as well as the process. Results of scoring were shared with student performers and interviews conducted about usefulness of the feedback. Seven themes emerged from the research analysis: a) levels of proficiency, b) performance criteria, c) descriptors, d) numerical scoring, e) comments, f) recording method, and g) song selection relative to the skill level of the singers. Results of the study determined that the rubric was statistically reliable, and the students received valuable feedback that validated their own self-perceptions and assisted them in long- and short-term goal setting. Practitioners may benefit from further research that explores the validity of the rubric when assigning a grade, assessing live performances, and including additional repertoire.</p>

<p> At the time of this study, school districts in the United States faced challenges relative to educational accountability, especially in the areas of language arts and mathematics. Research suggested that music held the potential to bolster student engagement and academic achievement to improve reading outcomes for students. An integrated music curriculum was designed and implemented by the researcher to support reading achievement in a Midwestern, suburban elementary school. The purpose of this counterbalanced research design was to examine the effect of an integrated music curriculum upon the reading achievement of kindergarten students. The lesson framework included brain-based and active listening warm-ups, the presentation of literature, an Orff-Schulwerk activity and literacy centers. Quantitative methods were used to answer four hypotheses statements including <i>t</i>-tests for difference in means, <i>z</i>-tests for difference in means, a chi-square tests for difference in variance, and an analysis of variance to determine the effects of the integrated music curriculum. </p><p> Although the quantitative results for three of the null hypotheses were not statistically significant, there were observable changes in the children's motivations and attitudes toward reading. Student growth in the content area of music was shown to be significant. The researcher concluded that music as a content area was valuable on its own, but could also make learning more powerful when utilized in reading instruction and other content areas. The new information gained from this study may help readers find effective ways of using music to enhance reading achievement.</p>

<p> This mixed methodology study investigated the arts integration practices of music teaching artists participating in four selected elementary school arts integration projects in the United States. This study also explored the possibility that music teaching artists&rsquo; formal education, arts integration training and professional development, and their own attitudes as well as different stakeholders&rsquo; attitudes about arts integration and music education impacted their arts integration practices. The explanatory two-phase design of this study began with the collection and analysis of quantitative data and was followed by the collection and analysis of qualitative data, thus connecting the results from the former to those from the latter. The quantitative data provided information for purposefully selecting the interview participants who provided the qualitative data collection in phase two.</p><p> The data gathered in this study indicate that the music teaching artists shared similar beliefs about arts integration but that they believed their school leaders&rsquo; goals and objectives differed from their own. The data also provided evidence for concluding that the music teaching artists believe that the most successful arts integration projects are those that are collaborative partnerships between an arts specialist or classroom teacher and a teaching artist. A unexpected finding in this study was the teaching and exploration of <i>sound</i> in arts integration projects team taught between a sound teaching artist,&ndash;some without musical backgrounds or formal training&ndash;a music teaching artist, and a classroom teacher.</p><p> The statistical analysis in this study regarding the degree to which formal education, arts integration professional development and training, music teaching artists&rsquo; attitudes about arts integration, and the beliefs held by music teaching artists regarding school leaders&rsquo; and their arts organization&rsquo;s administrators&rsquo; attitudes about arts integration were predictors of the arts integration practices as self-reported by music teaching artists produced results that were non-significant.</p><p> The content analysis of curriculum documents and student products submitted by the study participants revealed information to support the findings from the interview and survey data.</p>

<p> Throughout human history, music has served as a coping mechanism when people have endured extreme hardships in life. Music and songs in prisons have been written and sung to express the pain of the incarceration. Research has suggested that songwriting is a powerful educational and therapeutic catalyst, and that songwriting may facilitate the processing of difficult emotions. </p><p> The purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding of the emotions expressed in the songs of incarcerated men, and how songwriting as an outlet for emotional expression influenced the writers. Data collected for this study included 47 songs written by 17 incarcerated men, written observations and reflections by participants and three facilitators, transcriptions of four workshop sessions, and sound recordings/transcriptions of 16 spoken introductions and 13 songwriter-performed pieces. An additional 32 songs were collected from a case-study participant for examination. All data were collected using ethnographic methods. Modified grounded theory techniques, including initial coding, focused coding, and memo writing were used to analyze the data. </p><p> Findings revealed that although the lyric themes categorized expressed more happy than sad emotions, the most frequently expressed emotion was desperation, and desperation was usually expressed in songs with a context of incarceration. In addition, songs that expressed humor were often a way to cope with incarceration, and songwriting was also a way express the pain of addiction. Examining the songs of the case-study participant revealed that his writing changed over time. His most frequently expressed emotion in 2008 was fear, and song concepts usually involved sinister, otherworldly figures. In 2011, his most frequently expressed emotion was closeness, and song concepts focused on determination to build a better life. </p><p> Throughout the workshop sessions, the men experienced feelings of psychological comfort in routines established over time. Data analyses indicated that group interactions and opportunities to perform were primary motivators in participants' decisions to participate in the Songwriters' Workshop. For most men, group response processes generated new ideas for songs, and greater song quality. Some of the men further stated that participating in the Songwriters' Workshop helped them to foster better relationships, and re-envision their futures. Difficulties that occasionally arose were both pedagogical and social in nature. </p><p> Based upon these findings, I suggest that aspects of Cohen's Theory of Interactional Choral Singing Pedagogy pertains to songwriting contexts. I propose a theory of the expressive community, in which the community influences individuals, and individuals influence the community. I further suggest collective-actualization, in which individuals in a group realize their collective potentials, capabilities, and talents, and seek the achievement of these potentialities.</p>