New Haven area school teachers are invited to a professional development day sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Register here.
10-11:30 am: Accessible Repertoire Selection K-12 Choral with Dr. Felicia Barber, associate professor adjunct of Choral Conducting at Yale Institute of Sacred Music and conductor of Yale Camerata.
11:30-1 pm: Elementary: Teaching Through International Song with Dr. Rachel Gibson, professor of Music at Westfield State University. Her talk features the book, ¡Canta Conmigo!: Songs and Singing Games from Guatemala and Nicaragua.
Dr. Rachel Gibson is a Professor of Music Education at Westfield State University in Massachusetts and an active local, national, and international clinician. She was a Suzuki piano student as a child and a Suzuki parent to her two children. In addition to Suzuki Book 1 training, she is certified in Kodály and Orff-Schulwerk teaching philosophies and integrates these pedagogies into her piano instruction. She published the book ¡Canta Conmigo! Songs and Singing Games from Guatemala and Nicaragua (Oxford University Press, 2021), which is a comprehensive teaching resource that includes songs and singing games she learned while living in Central America. As a Fulbright Global Scholar (2021), she taught and researched at Universidad de Málaga in Spain and travelled throughout the country learning children’s songs from local musicians.
Dr. Felicia Barber is associate professor of Choral Conducting at the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music and conducts the Yale Camerata. In addition to teaching graduate-level choral conductors and aspiring undergraduate conductors, Barber is developing a new initiative designed to prepare Yale students to work with young musicians on choral music in school and church settings. Previously she worked as director of Choral Activities at Westfield State University, in Westfield, Mass., where she led the Chamber Chorale, Gospel Choir, and University Chorus and taught classes in conducting, choral music education, and pedagogy. Read more.