Band – Frank Dubuy
General Music – Connie Hale
Connie Hale has been Assistant Professor of Elementary Music at Winthrop University since 2005. Dr. Hale received a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Baker University, a Master of Music degree and a Ph. D. from Kansas State University. In 2008, Dr. Hale completed the International Summer Course, Music and Dance Education at the Orff Institute in Salzburg. For 30 years, Dr. Hale taught elementary music in the public schools. In 2005, she was presented the Kansas Outstanding Music Teacher Award by the Kansas Music Educators' Association.
Chorus – Maria Schwab
Maria Schwab currently teaches at P.S./M.S. 84, a Pre-K - Grade 7 school in Astoria, N.Y. where she implemented the music program in the fall of 2006. Previously she spent 6 years at P.S. 150, where she was responsible for the K – 3 music program, including the P. S. 150 junior Chorus, and 5 years teaching music at P.S. 183, a K-5 public school in Manhattan, where she started the chorus and instrumental music programs. Prior to this she taught in public and private schools in N.Y.C. and Long Island (grades 5 - 12), and spent four years in England at the American Community School, Cobham, teaching music and drama (grades K -12). Her teaching and directing experience includes: chorus, show choirs, band, music history and theory, voice, guitar and piano (private and group lessons), general music, drama performance and musical theatre.
Outside of P.S.84, Mrs. Schwab sings with the N.Y. Choral Society and previously directed the New York Festival Chorus, an a cappella choir that presented benefit concerts in the tri-state area, Bridgehampton, Boston and the Bahamas. Mrs. Schwab is also a church musician, playing and singing in churches throughout the five boroughs and Long Island. Mrs. Schwab has conducted workshops on the use of Kodaly methodology in the elementary chorus rehearsal for NYC’s Region 4 Arts Professional Development Program, and has led workshops on literacy and music and rehearsal management/technique.
Currently, she facilitates DOE professional development sessions for music teachers, and contributed to the revised edition of the music Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts. Mrs. Schwab has written reviews and curriculum for the National Association of Music Education (MENC), and has edited curriculum for the Weill Music Institute, Carnegie Hall’s education program. In July 2007, Mrs. Schwab began her tenure as the president of the Music Educators Association of NYC (MEANYC). In June 2009, Mrs. Schwab will be participating in a symposium on music education in urban schools at Yale University, where she will be receiving a Distinguished Music Educators award.
Mrs. Schwab earned a BM (music education) from Ithaca College and an MA (educational theatre) from New York University; she has continued her studies with classes at Westminster Choir College, Queens College, Brooklyn College, Columbia University Teachers' College, NYU and the VoiceCare Network, as well as attending numerous workshops and conferences on music and drama. Her musical training began in the N.Y.C. public schools.
Orchestra – Linda McNair
Linda has a Master of Arts in Teaching from Washington University in St. Louis. She has taught elementary Strings and middle school Orchestra for the last thirty years, and is just about to complete her twentieth year for the Rockwood School District in St. Louis County. She has taught at all levels, from elementary through high school but the majority of her teaching experience has been at the elementary and middle school levels.
She was a district mentor during the 2007-08 school year for a first year Strings teacher and really enjoyed having the opportunity to help someone through their first year as a teacher. She has also served as Vice President of Elementary Orchestra on the Board of the St. Louis Suburban Music Educators Association from 2004-2006. She is currently a member of the Webster Symphony Orchestra, one of the many community orchestras in the area.
Jazz – Jeff Kunkel
Jeffrey Kunkel (D.Ed., Music Education, Penn State University; M.M., Jazz Studies, New England Conservatory; B.S., Music Education, Penn State University) is currently in his twelfth year as a full time faculty member of the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, and his second year as Coordinator of the Cali School’s new major in Jazz Studies.
For the previous 10 years, Dr. Kunkel also served as the Coordinator of Undergraduate Music Education. In November 2008, Dr. Kunkel was presented with the prestigious New Jersey Jazz Education Achievement Award, given annually to an educator who has excelled in the field of jazz education. During spring semester 2007, Dr. Kunkel spent a great deal of time on sabbatical study in Brazil, concentrating on Brazilian jazz and bossa. He presented a two-day workshop at the Federal University of Parana, in Curitiba, entitled Linguagem do Jazz, and performed a jazz trio masterclass at UNIRIO, in Rio de Janeiro, with friend and colleague Haroldo Mauro.
Jeff recently returned to for his first featured jazz performance in Rio de Janeiro, at TribOz in the Lapa district. His duties in the Cali School includes courses in Jazz History, Jazz Theory, Jazz Improvisation, and Jazz Pedagogy, as well as direction of the MSU Jazz Band; he formerly directed the Vocal Jazz Ensemble as well. These groups have performed at the Villanova Jazz Festival, University of the Arts Jazz Festival, and New York Vocal Jazz Festival, and were featured with the Grammy Award winning New York Voices in MSU’s annual Crawford Concert in December 2006.
Dr. Kunkel was previously on the faculties of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Otterbein College in Columbus, Ohio, and prior to that taught on the secondary level in Darien, Connecticut and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jeff served three terms as president of the New Jersey chapter of the International Association for Jazz Education, and remains on the NJAJE board (formerly NJIAJE) as Adjudication Coordinator. He is active as a jazz pianist, composer, adjudicator, and clinician. He recently conducted the 2009 New Jersey Region III Jazz Band, and will be conducting the 2010 New Jersey Intercollegiate Jazz Ensemble.
In addition, Jeff directed the 2007 Pennsylvania District IV Jazz Band and the 2007 New Jersey Region I Jazz Band, and also had the honor of conducting the 2006 and 2002 New Jersey Intercollegiate Jazz Ensemble, the 2003 New Jersey Region II Jazz Ensemble, and the 2000 New Jersey Region I Jazz Ensemble. Jeff can be heard on a recent CD release by jazz trumpeter and composer Peter Sciaino, available at www.cdbaby.com. Jeff was also featured prominently on piano, keyboards, and trumpet on a 2001 CD release by eclectic singer/songwriter Julie Aaron entitled Borrowed Time, with a group that performed in many original music venues throughout New York City and New Jersey.
For the past 20 years, Jeff has remained annually involved in summer teaching at the Penn State Jazz Camp, and is President Emeritus of the Alumni Board of the College of Arts and Architecture, on which her served for 10 years, also at his alma mater. In his spare time, Jeff is a devoted baseball, hockey and football fan (Pittsburgh teams of course!), sports card collector, and diner fanatic. Jeff and his wife Mauria, who is a teacher at the Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School and also a native of Pittsburgh, reside in Maplewood, New Jersey, and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Guitar – Ina Allen
Ina Ruth Allen has been a music educator and choral director for over twenty-five years. She was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in a musical family. She attended a performing arts high school as did all of her brothers and sisters. Her family has been involved with MENC since she was a toddler.
After graduation from DePauw University in Indiana, she taught in the Indianapolis Public Schools and later returned to Philadelphia to teach music and perform professionally until she moved to Chicago. She has been teaching music in the Evanston School District and performing professionally since moving to the Chicago area. She teaches General music classes which include handbells, keyboards, recorders, and guitar. She also takes her choruses to contests each year.
Ms Allen was a Graduate Summer Fellow in Music at Northwestern University and earned her Masters Degree in Educational Leadership from Northeastern Illinois University.
Ina sings with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and with other performing groups around the Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana regions. She has toured singing in places such as Switzerland, Russia, Israel, Egypt, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden She also performs as a freelance recitalist and music clinician around the world..
She spent three months in South Africa where she was part of a team of teachers in an exchange program that taught music in grades K-13 schools. The team also spent several weeks working with township choirs in Kimberley SA, and coached them on American and European music styles and languages. In return, the team learned many South African songs and dances and was fully engulfed in the SA traditions of music making. Ina has become a wonderful clinician in the US and Europe teaching South African music.
Ina incorporates her love of music in her teaching and performing. She says as long as she is able to do both careers and keep the love of music in her heart she will stay young forever and use the gift that she has been given to bring joy to many people along her journey in life.