Band – Mindy Scheierman
-Doctoral studies completed, Boston University; M.M., B.M., Ithaca College
-Yamaha Corporation of America Regional Artist/Clinician
-Publications, Texas Band Masters Association, Yamaha Corporation of America WindPak, NJMEA Tempo Magazine
-Wind band commissions/consortiums, Dana Wilson (Shortcut Home); Bruce Yurko (Intrada for Wind Ensemble; Episodes for Wind Ensemble); Augusta Read Thomas (Magnetic Fireflies)
-Former faculty, William Paterson University, Ocean County College
-Guest conductor, New Jersey Region II and III Symphonic Bands; William Paterson University , Rutgers University and The College of New Jersey High School Honor Bands; Millburn High School Wind Ensemble performance at Carnegie Hall
-Member, WASBE, CBDNA, MENC, NJMEA, NJSMA, AFM, NFA
-New Jersey Governor's Award for Arts Education and New Jersey Music Educators master Teacher AwardExcellence in Chamber Music Education award from Chamber Music America; multiple honoree in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers and Education
General Music – Helen Krofchick
Helen A Krofchick currently the music teacher at Doby's Mill Elementary School, has taught in Kershaw County schools since 2000 on arrival to the USA from England as an international teacher, teaching Kindergarten through fifth grade general music and chorus. Previous music education experience began in 1994 in Birmingham, England teaching Kindergarten through high school music. Helen received her BEd Hons degree from Wolverhampton University, England. Helen has received certification through the Associated Board for the Royal Schools of Music and London college at Thames Valley University, for music theory and practical performance on flute and piano. An Associate of the London College of Music. Masters degree from Francis Marion University in the United States. Avid in arts advocacy Helen has been involved with CLIA for the last two years, and more recently a regional outreach consultant for the ABC project. Published works include lessons for VH1 through MENC and reviews for From The Top Lessons. A past presenter for the South Carolina Arts Alliance and has been involved in USC honors chorus for the last two years. Helen has received several grants from state and private funding for her school music program. Trained in the Yamaha MIE program Helen is integrating technology into the music classroom. Now looking to become Orff certified as one of her many future projects as part of her life long passion for music, and personal growth to provide the best music learning experience for her students. Helen received her National Board Certification in music, 2008.
Chorus – Elizabeth McAnally
Elizabeth McAnally holds degrees in music education from Nazareth College of Rochester and Columbia University Teachers College. For the past sixteen years, she has worked with students in gr. K – 8 in the School District of Philadelphia, where she is always busy but never bored! She currently teaches general music at Wilson Middle School (School District of Philadelphia), is co-director of the school’s 200-voice choir, and serves as Lead Teacher for her department. She is a contributing author of Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom, recently published by MENC/R&L Publishing, in which she writes about motivating urban music students. She has presented sessions at the PMEA and NJMEA 2007 State Conferences, MENC 2006 National Conference, and various professional development workshops. Mrs. McAnally has published articles for Teaching Music and is co-author of a series for Philadelphia on teaching literacy through the arts.
Higher Ed/Admin – Michael Stone
Michael D. Stone earned the B.A. in Music Education/Performance and the M.Ed. in Education from UCLA. In January of 2004, Mr. Stone was appointed to the position of Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator for the Bakersfield City School District. As the arts administrator for the district, he oversees arts programs at 31 elementary schools, 6 middle schools, and 2 junior high schools. Instruction in the arts is offered at all schools in the district. Prior to assuming this position, Mr. Stone served for over 14 years as instrumental music teacher at Chipman Junior High School, also in the Bakersfield City School District. Under his leadership, Chipman bands and orchestras consistently earned Unanimous Superior Ratings at CMEA (California Association for Music Education) adjudicated ratings festivals.
As a mentor teacher, Mr. Stone developed a "point award system" which was used to motivate students in the instrumental music program. Chipman bands and orchestras performed at the state conferences of CMEA and CBDA during his tenure. Mr. Stone was featured in the January 1999 issue of The Instrumentalist Magazine, and has written several articles for the magazine since that time. During the summer of 1998, he was awarded the prestigious "Fellowship in Music Education" at Northwestern University.
Mr. Stone is currently serving as president of the California Band Directors Association. He is a past president of both the Kern County Music Educators Association and the California Association for Music Education, Central Section, and has served in an adjunct capacity at California State University, Bakersfield, teaching instrumental music methods to undergraduates. Mr. Stone holds active memberships in many professional organizations, including MENC, CBDA, CMEA, SCSBOA, and the American School Band Directors Association. He is a euphoniumist and trombonist, and is a founding member of the newly created Bakersfield Winds, a symphonic wind ensemble.
Active as an adjudicator and guest conductor, Mr. Stone has conducted honor bands and orchestras throughout California and Oregon, including most recently the 2008 Ventura County Jr. High Honor Band and the Salem-Keizer Unified School District Jr. High Honor Band in Salem, Oregon. In addition, recent summers have included time guest conducting at Cazadero Performing Arts Camp, and the University of the Pacific Summer Music Conservatory.
Orchestra – Constance Barrett
Constance E. Barrett has performed with an eclectic variety of musicians in all kinds of genres from her performances on national network TV with Camaraterie to her work with sitarist Nana Simopoulos. Dr. Barrett has also been a guest artist with the internationally famous Cavani String Quartet and made her film debut in the Focus Features release Reservation Road, directed by Terry George and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connolly, and Mira Sorvino. Called “a musician of rare sensitivity” by the Republique of Seine et Marne, France, she has performed at Jacob’s Pillow, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and at the Berkshire Jazz Festival as well as appearing on pop duo Shimmerplanet’s debut album, where her playing was cited in the press as “haunting” and “beautiful.”
A 2007 recipient of the Yale University School of Music Distinguished Music Educator award, Dr. Barrett has taught at chamber music clinics, Suzuki Institutes, and teacher in-service days around the country. Combining her love of Western Classical music with her strong interest in improvisation and new music, Dr. Barrett’s teaching style has been called “joyously energetic” and “loads of fun.” She has been active in Music for People, facilitating workshops with Grammy-nominated cellist David Darling. Dr. Barrett has also presented at the Suzuki National Conference, the American String Teachers Association National Conference, New York State School Music Association, the Ohio String Teachers Association, and the Connecticut Music Educators Association. She is a frequent contributor to the American String Teacher journal and contributed three articles to the GIA publication, Teaching Music Through Performance in Orchestra.
Dr. Barrett believes strongly in the teachings of Shinichi Suzuki (1898-1998), who introduced the “Mother Tongue” method of learning music. All children, regardless of their individual levels of intelligence, can speak their native language. In the same way, by daily listening to recordings and by frequent attendance at concerts in addition to daily practice, students learn to perform music. All people are musical; they just need the right environment of loving support to develop their musicianship.
Dr. Barrett has been a member of the faculty of Kenyon and Lafayette Colleges, Capital University, and Hackley School. She is currently a string specialist with the Greenwich, CT, Public Schools. Dr. Barrett is also assistant director of the Summer Programs for the Chamber Music Connection in Worthington, Ohio.
Mariachi – Bill Gradante
Bill Gradante was born and raised in the multi-ethnic community known as the “South End” of Hartford, Connecticut. He earned his B.A. in Music at Middlebury College in Vermont, where he graduated magna cum laude and was a Phi Beta Kappa scholar. Under the guidance of ethnomusicologist Ronald Smith, Gradante spent six months doing ethnomusicological research in a small town in the southern Colombian Andes, resulting in a 300-page B.A. thesis. He did his graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied with some of the most respected folklorists and ethnomusicologists of the day. During this time, the “Dean of Latin American Folklorists,” the venerable Américo Paredes, introduced Gradante to mariachi music. After three more research trips to Colombia and ten years in the stacks at the Institute of Latin American Studies, Gradante produced an 850-page doctoral dissertation on Colombian folk musical improvisation and had begun a lifelong love affair with mariachi music.
Gradante has spent the last twenty-seven years teaching mariachi classes at J.P. Elder Middle School and North Side High School, while spending weekends as a professional mariachi. He has published academic articles on the music of José Alfredo Jiménez, Colombian folk music, and low rider culture. He is also the editor of the book Foundations of Mariachi Education: Materials, Methods, and Resources, to be published by MENC and Rowman & Littlefield Education in April 2008.
Jazz – Ron Kearns
Ron Kearns is a performer, conductor, composer/arranger, record producer, and educator.
He has performed with Ernie Andrews, Stanley Turrentine, Rick Henderson, Kenny Reed, and many other notable artists. He has performed at venues such as the world renowned Blues Alley Jazz Supper Club (Washington, DC), The Iridium (NY, NY), Ryles Jazz Club (Boston), Rams Head On Stage (Annapolis, MD), One Union Square (San Francisco), The Music Center at Strathmore (Bethesda, MD), London's 100 Club, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. His CDs, Hand Prints, The Ron Kearns Quintet, Live! at Blues Alley--Blues in the Alley, Looking Back, Stepping Forward (with special guest, Buck Hill), Live at Montpelier, and Introspective are being played on CMJ and Jazz radio stations in the United States and Canada and have received critical acclaim from Cadence Magazine, JazzTimes, and The Washington Post as well as several newspapers in cities in which he has performed.
As a producer, Mr. Kearns has produced albums/CDs for Candid Records, LTD, London, England, FOXHAVEN RECORDS, Jazz Karma Records, and Tiffany Records. Some of the artists Ron Kearns has produced have won WAMMIE AWARDS (Washington Area Music Awards) and have received GRAMMY nominations, and he is a three time GRAMMY Educational Award winner.
As an educator, Ron Kearns distinguished himself with excellent bands, orchestras, and Jazz ensembles. His groups won numerous national awards, and for 28 years, no group received less than a Superior rating for sight reading at any local, state, or national festival. Mr. Kearns was selected by School Band and Orchestra Magazine as one of 50 Directors who make a difference (2004). In 2005 Ron received Down Beat magazine’s Achievement in Jazz Education Award. He has written liner notes for several nationally acclaimed recordings and has published articles on jazz production and performance. Ron Kearns is a Vandoren of Paris Performing Artist. As a performing artist and clinician, Ron has presented clinics across the United States and Canada.
Guitar – Glen McCarthy
Glen McCarthy graduated from West Virginia University with a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education and an emphasis in Music. In 1976, after traveling internationally with the band “Hickory Wind”, he settled down to teach at Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax, Virginia. Though he was originally hired as an assistant band director, Mr. McCarthy (“Mr. Mac” as he is known to his students), saw the need to involve a more diverse student population in the courses the music department offered. In order to do this, Mr. Mac implemented two beginning guitar classes. Over the years, the highly successful guitar program at Robinson has become an integral part of the music curriculum. The Robinson Guitar Ensemble has consistently been awarded superior ratings at adjudicated festivals. The Ensemble was the first high school guitar ensemble to perform at the annual Guitar Foundation of America convention. Robinson High School was the first recipient of the Guitar Accessories Manufacturers Association’s effort to recognize innovative guitar programming in the United States.
As Mr. McCarthy’s guitar program at Robinson has grown, so has his reputation. He has been “instrumental” in developing guitar curriculum throughout much of Fairfax County. He has taught Guitar Methods, required for all Music Education majors at George Mason University, for over 15 years. He has been a guest clinician at Virginia Tech, Roanoke County, Loudoun County, and the Virginia; Southern Division; and National Music Educators Conferences. In the 2003-2004 school year, Mr. Mac was nominated for Fairfax County Teacher of the Year. His most recent guitar teaching venture has been as the selected instructor at the educational center of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts. Over the summer, as a member of the National Guitar Task Force, he teaches workshops throughout the country.
Glen McCarthy is particularly proud that many of his students have gone on to enjoy successful music careers. Among those are Martha Ann Masters http://www.marthamasters.com/ who in 2000 won the Guitar Foundation of America International Competition, Tony Lopacinski http://www.facemusic.net/ who has played with numerous contemporary artists and Keith Owens and Michael Ward; both teaching high school guitar in Fairfax County Public Schools.
Mr. Mac continues to play in big band, bluegrass, Celtic, country, funk, German, Hawaiian, jazz, musicals, praise bands, rock, and numerous wedding groups and ensembles.