<p> The horn is renowned for its contributions to traditional orchestral repertoire and concert hall performances. Since its induction into the symphony, its uses outside the concert hall have been diverse albeit comparatively sparse. However rare, its implementation still spans from the high arts, to world of pop, and to the avant-garde. In 1976, the haunting, sonorous timbre of Peter Gordon's legendary solo horn would inspire Jaco Pastorius to feature it on his titular album. This paper will analyze and define key nontraditional uses of the horn, discuss the effects of non-notated performance practice on the hornist, provide method studies for improving non-notated performance, and demonstrate how the horn's employment as a compositional, improvisational, and accompanimental instrument, independent of strictly notated music, will help hornists to best perform Jaco Pastorius's <i>Okonkole y Trompa</i>. </p><p>

<p> This treatise explores the historical background of instrumental educational outreach concerts, and provides an overview of current educational outreach programming. The closing section discusses educational outreach concerts presented by a solo violinist, and provides a blueprint for a teaching performance which explores the storytelling power of music. Newly commissioned works for solo violin are included which are especially suited for outreach performances for children.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to (a) examine influences on choral music adjudicators&rsquo; rating decisions of choral performance quality and (b) to see if differences existed among those influences by participants&rsquo; years of adjudication experience and academic training (degree focus). Part One of the study included eight randomly selected participants (<i>N </i> = 8), comprised of choral adjudication experts, to aid in the construction of the data collection instrument. Part Two of the study included a convenience sample (<i>N</i> = 71) comprised of choral music performance adjudicators within the southeastern United States.</p><p> For the primary purpose, the <i>Choral Adjudicator Preference Scale </i> (CAPS), a researcher-constructed data-gathering instrument, was developed to determine influences on choral adjudicators&rsquo; rating decisions of choral performance. A Cronbach&rsquo;s Coefficient Alpha measure of internal consistency was calculated to establish reliability of the CAPS data collection instrument. A coefficient of .934 was found for the CAPS, which indicated a high level of internal consistency. Validity for the data-gathering instrument was established through three sources, (a) an open-ended questionnaire sent to the eight choral adjudicators, (b) a thorough review of the related literature and (c) verification by choral activities chairpersons among the southeastern states. For research question one (What factors influence adjudicators&rsquo; decisions when adjudicating choirs?) a principal component analysis revealed 23 items that coalesced among four factors of influence: (a) the ensemble&rsquo;s performance, (b) visual aspects, (c) extra-musical aspects, and (d) the conductor&rsquo;s contributions. These four factors accounted for 61.49 percent of the total variance in participants&rsquo; responses.</p><p> For the secondary purpose, a two-way repeated measures analysis of variance was calculated to determine if differences existed among factors of influence by participants&rsquo; years of adjudication experience and academic training (degree focus). For research question two (Do differences exist among adjudicators&rsquo; influences on rating decisions by years of adjudication experience?) a significant main effect was found for the factors, <i>F</i> (3, 189) = 216.581, <i> p</i> = .000, &eta;² = .775; however, there was no main effect for years of adjudication experience, nor an interaction effect among the factors and years of adjudication experience. For research question three (Do differences exist among adjudicators&rsquo; influences on rating decisions by academic training?) a significant main effect was found for the factors, <i> F</i> (3, 201) = 195.326, <i>p</i> = .000, &eta;² = .745; however, there was no main effect for academic training, nor an interaction effect among the factors and academic training.</p><p> A discussion of the influences on choral adjudicators&rsquo; rating decisions was presented. Recommendations for future research were suggested regarding music performance adjudication, influences on rating decisions, and characteristics of evaluators.</p><p>