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Workshop Calendar: 2023-2024
- Sept. 23, 2023 – Melanie DeMore
- Oct. 14, 2023 – Michael Chandler
- Mar. 2, 2024 – Dawn Muir
- May 3-5, 2024 – Mini Conference
Click links or scroll down for more detail and description
September 23, 2023
9:00am-1:30pm
Cal State East Bay
Melanie DeMore
Full Body Forward through Singing and Storytelling
Join vocal activist Melanie DeMore to connect with community through song, rhythm, and story. This workshop will speak to those who have longed to raise their voices with power, determination and energy. Participants will learn songs from various vocal and communal traditions and how to sing from and with their whole selves. Through a series of vocal, verbal and physical warm-up techniques, singers will learn how to fire up their inner and outer voices. We will also work with body percussion and stick pounding to integrate rhythm and voice.
Participants will be stomping and are encouraged to wear comfortable shoes.
“Ain’t no thing but a chicken wing!”
Melanie DeMore is a 3-time Grammy nominated singer/composer, choral conductor, music director, and vocal activist who believes in the power of voices raised together. In her presentations, DeMore beautifully brings her participants together through her music and commentary. DeMore facilitates vocal and stick-pounding workshops for professional choirs, and community groups as well as directing numerous choral organizations across the U.S., Canada, and beyond. She is a featured presenter of SpeakOut!-The Institute for Social and Cultural Change, the Master Teaching Artist for Music at UC Berkeley/ CalPerformances; works with everyone from Baptists to Buddhists, and was a founding member of the Grammy-nominated ensemble Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir. She became Music Director for Obeah Opera by Nicole Brooks as part of the Luminato Festival in 2019. She is a charter member of Threshold Choir founded by Kate Munger and conducts song circles with an emphasis on the voice as a vessel for healing. In her own words: “A song can hold you up when there seems to be no ground beneath you.”
October 14, 2023
Oak Knoll School
1895 Oak Knoll Lane, Menlo Park
9:00am-1:30pm
Michael Chandler
Everyday Improvisation: Student Creativity as a Daily Habit
Teachers often perceive improvisation, arranging, or composition as culminating steps of a learning experience that were developed solely to showcase the student creativity during a performance. While this is an excellent way to demonstrate student-centered creativity, another approach involves eliciting smaller creative responses throughout daily learning experiences for which the final product may not feature the improvisation. Sometimes the magic of “everyday improvisation” exists only in the classroom and may, or may not, make its way to the stage, but it is still equally important toward students’ skill and artistic development. Participants in this workshop will experience learning activities that include such choices and opportunities to elicit everyday student choice and creativity through movement, body percussion, untuned percussion, recorder, mallet instruments, and the ‘ukulele.
Michael Chandler is an Assistant Professor of Music and Coordinator of Music Education at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in music education and supervises student teachers. Michael taught elementary general music in Texas public schools for 16 years, during which his student groups performed as invited ensembles at the TMEA conference in 2005, 2007, and 2013. He was an accompanist for the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas for 10 years and is the current founding conductor of the Clarksville Children’s Chorus. Michael teaches all three levels of Orff Schulwerk basic and recorder during summers in AOSA-approved teacher education courses, and his work has appeared in The Southwestern Musician, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, The Orff Echo, and Orff-Schulwerk International.
March 2, 2024
Children’s Day School @Grace Fellowship Community Church
3265 16th St., San Francisco, CA
9:00am-1:30pm
Dawn Muir
Seaside, Snow, and Sunshine!
Movement, Drumming, and Dance with a Jamaican Flavour
Get ready to sing, move, play and discover with rhythm, melody, movement, dance and games from the sunny coast of Jamaica; Explore expressive movement, literature based movement activities and building confidence in movement and dance for students and teachers; Launch off Graeme Base’s beloved Jungle Drums story into singing, dancing and drumming together.
Dawn Muir is an Orff Specialist teaching K-5 music in Winnipeg, enriched by graduate studies in education at O.I.S.E. (M. Ed) and Cambridge UK (Ph. D), and ongoing studies in Afro-Caribbean dance and drumming, and World Music. She shares these interests in local and national level workshops for children and music educators in Canada and the US. Dawn is committed to musical excellence and grounding music in its cultural context. In her classroom and her workshops, she shares with students and teachers the joy of performing in community, the satisfaction of achieving excellence, and the wonder of discovering the world of Music and the World through music.
Spring Mini Conference
May 3 (5pm) – May 5 (2pm), 2024
Hidden Valley Music Seminars
104 W Carmel Valley Rd, Carmel Valley, CA 93924
The Ohlone Sisters and Magda Pucci
The Ohlone Sisters
The Guardians of the Earth:
Indigenous Music in the Classroom
Click here for more information and registration
NCAOSA is pleased to bring you the Ohlone Sisters and Brazilian ethnomusicologist Magda Pucci, who will present on how to introduce indigenous music into the classroom thoughtfully and respectfully. Additionally, Orff clinicians Sofía López-Ibor and Andrea Donahoe will teach a session on integrating these topics into the Orff approach.
Conference Description
The Ohlone Sisters, Carla Marie and Desiree Munoz, are tribal members of the Costanoan Rumsen Carmel tribe and facilitators of past and present Ohlone knowledge. They will share songs, storytelling, regalia, language, and special relationships from Ohlone culture. They also focus on cultural contextualizing and Land Acknowledgement practices for educators.
Objectives
- Explore the use of Indigenous languages, instruments, and vocal techniques.
- Develop Orff-inspired activities and games that incorporate Indigenous music.
- Emphasize rhythm, melody, and movement activities to engage students.
- Address cultural sensitivity and ethical considerations when teaching Indigenous music.
- Explore the importance of representing diverse musical traditions in the classroom.
- Engage participants in collaboration to create a performance piece that incorporates Indigenous elements.
- Share sources for Indigenous music recordings and pedagogical materials.
- Encourage participants to develop action plans for implementing Indigenous music into their school’s music program.
- Discuss how Indigenous music can align with the Orff approach.
- Discuss ways to collaborate with Indigenous communities respectfully.
Magda Pucci’s session, “Sounds of Diversity: Exploring Indigenous Music and Culture,” will be based on the research presented in the book Cantos da Floresta. This workshop seeks to demystify the notion that all indigenous cultures are the same, showcasing a glimpse of the immense diversity among the over 306 indigenous peoples in Brazil.
Let’s explore the cultural and sonic tapestry woven within these indigenous communities through a dynamic range of activities that encompass active listening to the mesmerizing sounds of these communities. Participants will have the opportunity to partake in hands-on musical practice, where they will learn and perform various indigenous songs. The session will also delve into indigenous cosmovision through captivating mythical narratives, exploring the profound spiritual and cultural insights woven into their traditions. Additionally, participants will engage in artistic expressions inspired by indigenous graphisms that embody the essence of the worldview of Xingu or Rio Negro peoples. Creative games will add an element of fun and interaction to the experience.
This workshop provides an immersion into the rich musical traditions of diverse indigenous peoples from different regions across Brazil, including Krenak, Paiter Surui, Ikolen-Gavião, Guarani, Yudjá, Kambeba, Xavante, Kaingang, and more. This journey sheds light on a fraction of the extensive cultural and sonic diversity that thrives within indigenous communities.
The aim is to equip educators with playful and engaging activities deeply rooted in indigenous repertoires, thus enhancing their ability to effectively address indigenous themes in the classroom.
Presenter Bio:
Magda Pucci (b. 1964) is a Brazilian musician known for her roles as an arranger, composer, and singer, as well as an independent researcher focusing on world music and Brazilian indigenous cultures. She holds a degree in Music (Conducting) from the University of São Paulo and earned her Master’s in Anthropology from PUC-SP. Additionally, she holds a Ph.D. in Artistic Research from Leiden University in the Netherlands.
As the musical director and founder of Mawaca, a São Paulo-based musical group, Magda has played a pivotal role in producing 7 CDs and 4 DVDs. She has taken the group on tours to more than 8 countries and across Brazil, garnering recognition such as the PPM Prize in 2017, 2019, and 2021.
Beyond her world with Mawaca, Magda is also the author of books related to indigenous culture, musics of the world, and music education. Magda is a sought-after educator, teaching post-graduation and extension courses at some universities in Brazil. She is the manager and curator of the Estúdio Mawaca, where she conducts a series of artistic and pedagogical activities, always with a focus on non-hegemonic musicalities. She has also composed soundtracks for theater and dance performances.
Her extensive work extends to collaborative musical projects with various indigenous communities and artists, including the Kayapó, Guarani e Kaiowa, Huni-Kuin, Paiter Surui, Fulni-ô, Tikuna, and others. Magda has also been involved in social projects, working with children from NGOs, and directing a group of refugees based in São Paulo.
She has been a member of the International Council of Traditional Music and Dance – ICTMD since 2013 being part of the Latin American and Caribbean Study Group.
Her scholarly contributions are notable, with published articles in journals and chapters in books. Magda’s research interests encompass cultural musicology, Amazonian indigenous music, world music pedagogy, applied or participatory ethnomusicology, community music, artistic research, performance, and indigenous anthropology.