Band – James Sheeley
James P. Sheeley, Jr. is completing his 28th year as a music educator, the last seven with the Newark Public Schools. He is presently the Supervisor of Music in the Office of Visual and Performing Arts for the Newark Public Schools. Mr. Sheeley provides assistance to over 85 music education professionals in 72 schools.
Mr. Sheeley has varied experience as a music educator starting as a K-12 music specialist in Big Spring, Nebraska followed by a year as a teaching assistant at Mansfield University and seventeen years as a high school instrumental music teacher in suburban New Jersey. Mr. Sheeley's musical ensembles have received recognition at the local and regional level and many students’ have auditioned successfully for Region, All-State and All Eastern Honor Ensembles. Mr. Sheeley has assisted in and supervised the writing and revising curriculums for K-8 vocal music, 5-12 instrumental music, 9- 12, piano, instrumental music and vocal music for an Arts Magnet High School, Vocal Music 9 - 12 for comprehensive high schools and music foundations for 9-12. He develops and assists professional development workshops for the music educators in the Newark Public Schools.
Mr. Sheeley holds a B.S. in Music Education from Mansfield State College
(1980) and a M.M in Instrumental Music with a concentration in conducting from Mansfield University (1984). Mr. Sheeley completed a M.S. in Educational Leadership through the immersion program at The College of NJ (2003). He completed additional graduate work at The University of Iowa and Chadron State College. He has certifications in Music K-12, NJ, PA and NE, Supervisor, Principal and School Administrator.
Mr. Sheeley performs regularly as a trombonist and is the assistant director of the Whitehouse Wind Symphony, a concert band of music professionals. He is an adjudicator for the USSBA marching band association and works as a consultant for several area music programs.
General Music – Rob Amchin
Dr. Robert Amchin is a Distinguished Teaching Professor of music education and the head of the music education/therapy division at the University of Louisville. For the past nine years, he has enjoyed leading undergraduate and graduate classes in teacher education and research to music and non-music majors. He also supervises music education students in the greater Louisville, Kentucky region. Prior to arriving in Kentucky, he was on the faculty of Mansfield University (PA).
Dr. Amchin¹s own training includes studies at the Orff Institute (Salzburg), New England Conservatory of Music, Memphis State University, Hofstra University, Hamline University, and the University of Michigan. He was a respected elementary music teacher for many years in Spring, Texas. Dr. Amchin still works with children in the Kentucky area as a guest teacher and artist-in-residence.
A sought-after clinician in elementary general music education, Dr. Amchin presents clinics around the world including Orff teacher-training courses, sessions at local, state and national conferences. He has led presentations in Israel, Poland, and Canada and will be a guest lecturer of Orff pedagogy classes in Russia this October. He also will be a clinician at numerous elementary music workshops in North America this year.
Dr. Amchin has contributed to various AOSA and MENC publications and
projects throughout his career. He has also published various collections of his own compositions and arrangements for elementary music teachers and recorder ensembles. When he is not teaching or writing, Dr. Amchin enjoys researching current trends in teacher education, creative thinking research, early childhood, movement education, integrated arts curricula, Orff Schulwerk, folk music, banjo, photography, world percussion, and historical instruments. Dr. Amchin is thrilled to be a mentor for MENC.
Chorus – Suzanne Kane
Suzanne Marie Kane is currently in her fifteenth year of teaching and third year as Choral Music Director at West Side High within the Newark Public Schools.
She spent twelve years at Peshine Avenue University Prep in Newark’s South Ward. While there, she actively participated in the redevelopment of the Related Arts/ Arts and Humanities curriculum for grades Pre-Kindergarten through eighth- including the LRE (Least Restrictive Environment) communities. She also served as the department chair with duties that included conducting department level meetings, curriculum development and scheduling. She also served as a school-based liaison for the NJPAC Arts Academy; member, facilitator and presenter for the Peshine Avenue University Prep Interdisciplinary Committee, the school liaison for the District Professional Development Committee and the Project Grad, Newark – CMCD (Consistently Management & Cooperative Discipline) (2004-2005), school Professional Development Liaison (2004-2006) and the School Leadership Committee (SLC- 1996-2006).
Ms. Kane also has served as a supervising cooperating teacher for Westminster Choir College of Rider University for the Fall, 2005 semester, facilitator for New Teacher Orientation (August, 2006- Newark Public Schools) and Master Teacher (Project Grad Newark, 2000-2001). She has been an active member of NJMEA (NJ Music Educators Association) serving as a clinician for the NJ Music in Urban Schools (December,2007), presider for the NJMEA conference (February,2007) and MENC (Music Education National Conference) member and national mentor for choral music (April, 2007) Ask the Mentor online program.
Ms. Kane holds a B.A. in Music Education from Westminster Choir College of Rider University (1994) and a M.A. in Educational Administration and Supervision at Seton Hall University (2004), under the accelerated track. While there, she was inducted into the Kappa Delta Pi– Xi Gamma Chapter for academic achievement. She has completed post-graduate studies and training at Kean, Seton Hall, Westminster Choir College and Harvard Universities in educational administration and supervision, music education and early childhood education. She holds certifications in New Jersey as an Elementary Teacher (K-8), Music Education (K-12), Supervisor, Principal and School Administrator.
She currently is a doctoral student at the University of St. Thomas in Educational Administration and Supervision with a concentration in Critical Pedagogy.
Orchestra – Charlene Dell
Dr. Charlene Dell teaches undergraduate courses in String Instrument Methods and pedagogy, as well as the Beginning Instruments Lab, and the Introduction to Teaching Techniques courses at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Dell has sixteen years of teaching experience in the public schools of upstate New York and South Carolina. She has presented clinics at the Music Educators National Conference, the ASTA National Conference, the OMEA state conference, the TMEA state conference, as well as the NYSSMA state conference. She has articles published in the Teaching Music through Orchestra book series, as well as national and international journals. Her research areas are string intonation, arts integration, music learning theory, and orchestral recruitment and retention.
Mariachi – Thomas Garibay
Jazz - Paul Haar
Acclaimed saxophonist Paul Haar has contributed his notable talent to numerous projects in both the jazz and classical genres and is recognized as being one of the most versatile young saxophonists on the scene today. In the jazz idiom he has performed with such artists as Dave Brubeck, Peter Erskine, Phil Woods and has backed such personalities as Lou Rawls, Tony Bennett, and the Temptations. He has recorded on the Sea Breeze label and is active in such groups as The Southwest Horns Jazz-Saxophone Ensemble; The Nebraska Jazz Orchestra as well has his own duo and quartet.
He has presented featured clinics and master classes at The 31st and 32nd Annual International Association for Jazz Education Conferences, The 59th Annual Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, IAJE Teachers Training Institute and has contributed articles to such publications as The Instrumentalist, Jazz Times Magazine, Jazz Times Jazz Education Editions (2003, 2004, 2005) and the Saxophone Journal where he is a featured columnist.
He is currently the Assistant Professor of Saxophone and Jazz Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Guitar – Bill Purse
Bill Purse is a full professor, chair of the music technology and guitar departments at Duquesne University (Pittsburgh), where he was instrumental in the development of two new majors: music technology and sound recording technology. Purse received his bachelor of music and master of music at Duquesne University, as well as an EduCom (Education Communication) grant for study with Dr. Carol Lennox at Mills College for multimedia development in 1990. In addition, Purse has studied privately with Howard Massey at the Center for Electronic Music in New York, and with guitar virtuoso Pat Martino. Purse has received Duquesne University’s 1996 Presidents award for excellence in scholarship and a 2001 Lifetime Achievement Award for guitar pedagogy and performance. He is also an honored member of the Lexington Who’s Who.
Purse is the past chair of the MENC/NAMM/GAMA (Music Educators National Conference / National Association of Music Merchants / Guitar and Accessories Marketing Association) Guitar Task Force, which was created to revitalize the guitar in education. This very successful task force has retrained more than 1,200 teachers, who in turn have taught more than 280,000 young guitarists. Purse is also the editor of the MENC publication “Strategies for Teaching Guitar in Middle and High School.” Purse has pioneered the use of interactive CD-ROMs, MIDI files, hard disk recording, and music score publication in classroom and private teaching at Duquesne University. He has specialized in developing accelerated courses for mastering the guitar, The Guitar Atlas and Basic Guitar Structures, and has written several books for the Warner Brothers, Ultimate Beginner Tech Start Series(tm): Home Recording Basics, Belwin’s 21st Century Guitar Ensemble Arrangements for Europa and Classical Gas. In addition to co-writing Expressions Classroom Guitar Method with Aaron Stang. Purse is also the author of the highly acclaimed primer series for Coda Music’s Finale family: The NotePad Primer, The PrintMusic! Primer and The Finale Primer published by Back Beat Publications. Purse has publish several guitar works with Mel Bay Publications including: “Bach Chorale Guitar Ensemble Arrangements”, “Bach Chorale Sightreading Studies” and one of his original jazz compositions “Rainforest” is featured in Mel Bay’s “Master Anthology of Jazz Solos Volume Two” As an educational consultant for Fender Musical Instruments, Purse is a frequent and well-known lecturer and clinician on guitar synthesis and computer/MIDI applications for the guitar and classroom.
As a composer, arranger, and producer in radio and television, Purse has produced and released several albums of original music, including Catch 22’s Reappearance, Sly on Life, and Aergo’s Free. He has toured worldwide with the synthesizer ensemble Aergo and Purse has produced numerous critically acclaimed albums such as: “On Fire” by Amanda Ford (Alanna Records) GRAMMY Nomination for Producer, “Rachmaninoff by Nissman Volume I” GRAMMY Nomination for Engineer & “Rachmaninoff by Nissman Volume II”; Concert Favorites Volume I & Volume II for artist Barbara Nissman (Pierian Recording Society), Mussorgsky -Songs and Dances of Death/Schostakovich Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Op. 145 Guenko Guechev (Gega New/Bulgaria-Sony International), several tracks on Ken Karsh’s “Ventana” (Alanna Records) and in addition released several albums of original music “Acoustic Guitars and Whammy Bars” (Ridgewood Studios), Catch 22’s “Reappearance”, “Sly on Life”, and Aergo’s Free (Pursestring Productions).