LGBTQ research in music education has become more available and accepted in the past ten years. LGBTQ studies in music education have focused on how gay and lesbian music educators negotiate their identities, the role of music education in the lives of transgender students, and the inclusion of LGBTQ issues in music teacher education programs. Studies have been limited to a singular content experience, such as gay vocal music educators or lesbian band directors. Additionally, studies have not explored multiple generations of LGBTQ music educators. The purpose of this study was to explore the lives as lived of six K-12 music teachers. Six individuals, from various career points, various generations, and various career paths shared their stories with me. To guide my analysis, I considered the following questions:

• How do lesbian and gay music educators describe their sexual identity and professional identity?

• How do gay and lesbian music educators negotiate the tensions between these identities?

• What internal and external factors influence these negotiations?

• What are the similarities and differences among the participants of different generations?

Two large emerged from the analysis that provided a better understanding of the participants’ lives: finding sexual identity and finding professional identity. Within those themes, smaller sub-themes helped to better understand how the participants came to understand their sexuality and professional identity. External factors such as social and family support, religion, and cultural and generational movements influenced the ways in which the participants came to understand their sexual identity. Participants desired to be seen first as a competent music teacher, but also understood that they could have an impact on a student as a gay or lesbian role model or mentor. Sexual identity and professional identity did not function as separate constructs; rather they were interwoven throughout these lesbian and gay music educator’s self-identities.

In order to connect the reader with the participants, I engaged in a creative non-fiction writing process to (re)tell participant’s stories. Each story is unique and crafted in a way that the participant’s voice is privileged over my own. The stories come from the conversations and journal entries that the participants shared with me. The purpose of the stories is to provide the reader with a contextual understanding of each participant’s life, and to offer some considerations for ways in which we can engage with and support our lesbian and gay music educator colleagues.

This paper does not end with a tidy conclusion, but rather more questions and provocations that will continue the conversations. I hope this document will encourage thoughtful and critical conversations in the music education profession to help us move us forward to a place that is more empathetic, socially-just, and equitable.

There is value in audio recording for teachers, whether one is a music teacher recording their students and ensembles or a classroom teacher recording oneself or their students. Music and classroom teachers have various reasons for wanting to record their students, such as hearing what is being produced in rehearsals and having students reflect on their own performance and musical progress. Teachers may desire to record their students, but they may not know how to do so. Simple recording tools such as cell phones do not produce quality recordings, and unless they have specialized training, teachers may not be familiar with other kinds of recording equipment or how they can set up equipment in order to obtain a good quality recording. I searched for resources on recording equipment and techniques, but I could not find a single source that teachers could consult to learn about the basics of recording equipment and techniques. Teachers have limited time and may also have limited financial resources. The purpose of my project was to create a free and easy-to-use resource for teachers to answer their questions on recording and give them the tools that they need in order to get started with making basic, high quality recordings. The research process included research about different kinds of recording hardware and software, documenting recording techniques for different settings and instruments, and interviewing teachers about their needs. The product that that resulted from this project is a website, Recording For Teachers (https://sites.google.com/view/recordingforteachers/). This website features information about recording equipment, the recording process, how to produce shareable files, and an interactive means of posting questions.

This entire project looks at color guard from the perspective of a music educator and is meant to be a resource for other music educators, specifically, color guard instructors. Within the thesis project “A Guide to Coaching Color Guard” there are four sub-components.

The first is a historical research paper titled “The History and Evolution of Color Guard within Marching Band”. This paper defines what color guard is, identifies its origins, and outlines the major events that contributed to its development over time, leading up to what the sport and art of color guard has evolved into today.

The second component is a paper titled “Coaching Color Guard: My Experiences with Planning, Teaching, and Building a High School Color Guard Program”, which is a summarization of how a season of coaching color guard can be organized and examples of various learning opportunities a color guard coach could take advantage of during a season. Many education-specific teaching strategies are explained, such as the use of modeling, I do - we do - you do, whole-part-whole, scaffolding, sequencing from simple to complex, direct instruction vs. small groups, teaching to various learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic), instructor/peer/group feedback, assessment, and opportunities for student contribution and creativity.

The third component is paper titled “Color Guard Coaching Resources”, which is made up of ten different documents that are examples or resources for color guard instructors. These resources are referenced in the second component of this project and include samples of flyers, audition scoring sheets, a student handbook, participation sheet, and written choreography as well as providing a list of other outside resources as well as a list of the video tutorials.

These video tutorials are the final component of this project. There are 44 tutorial videos broken up into five categories. Each video is a step-by-step teaching video demonstrating and articulating how to spin a color guard flag. The first category consists of 10 introductory videos, which discuss terms and concepts that are overarching in all of the tutorial videos. Then, there are 23 tutorials within the category titled ‘Basic Moves’. The next category of ‘Intermediate Moves’ consists of 5 teaching videos for moves that are more difficult to execute than the basic moves. The fourth category has 5 video tutorials for ‘Tosses’. The last category is called ‘Move Sequences’ and only has 1 video. This tutorial shows how some moves have similar rotation patterns and can easily be strung together to create a choreography sequence.

The purpose of this study is to raise questions by exploring, writing, imagining, and telling the musical life stories of Billy Cioffi. Billy Cioffi is a professional musician, band leader, private teacher, professor of English, and, formerly, a musical director for acts such as Chuck Berry, Del Shannon, and others. In this document I explore the life of Billy Cioffi with the following questions in mind: 1. What might Billy's musical experiences, expertise, teaching, and learning teach us about music education? 2. What might the story of Billy’s musical life cause us to question about institutional music education? 3. How might his story trouble beliefs and perceptions about music teaching and learning? Prior to Billy’s story, which appears as a novella, I raise questions about popular music, its histories, and its place in music education contexts. Following the novella, I invite readers into four different “endings” to this document.

The result of hundreds of hours of work is a few minutes of music. I am mechanical engineering student with a passion for music. The objective of this creative project was to learn as much as I could about music theory, composition, orchestration, notation, recording, and mixing, and to create some music of my own. I learned a great deal in my two semesters of work. My music was focused on small ensembles of strings and piano. I created over ten hours of musical audio sketches and produced notation for four pieces for the piano and strings. The finished scores fit together with similar tones and textures, all sharing a minor tonality. The first piece, "Little Machine," is a simple, methodical piano piece created in the style of second species counterpoint. The second piece, "Searching" is a duet between a piano and a cello. For most of the piece, the two instruments share a rhythmic sense of mutual independence, yet neither part can exist without the either. "Something Lost" is a piano solo written with a variety of sections and a unifying idea that pervades through the piece. Finally, "3 Strings & Piano" is a melancholy adagio written for the piano, two cellos, and a double bass. Overall, this project has helped to prepare me for a lifetime of continued learning and composition. In the future I will continue to write music, and I hope to specifically learn more about the tools and techniques used by professionals in the industry so that I can find more efficient ways to produce my own music.

Labyrinths is my Capstone/Honors Creative Project, blending my proclivity for music composition and the inspiring stories of Jorge Luis Borges. Originally, the project was outlined as a collection of five to eight songs named for and based on stories in Borges' collection Labyrinths, to be written, recorded, and performed by me. Over time other aspects were included, making me a director of a large-scale creative project which now included three other musicians and two artists. In this paper, I give a brief overview of Borges' life and the context surrounding his collection Labyrinths, an in-depth description of the project as a whole, liner notes for each song, credits, and three appendices. The liner notes are broken into four sections: a summary of the story, an analysis of the story and my interpretation of it (including my musical ideas for the resulting song), an effects list, and performance notes which include the text I read from each story in the performance and recordings. The first appendix is a collection of the sheet music scores for each song and the text document I used for the performance readings. The second appendix shows the art I was given permission to use, and how I modified them for my thesis. The third appendix contains my primary sources, secondary sources/suggested readings, and suggested websites and videos. Attached are the recordings of each song I made in Logic Pro 9, a video of the live performance, and an unedited audio recording of the same performance.

Jamaican folk music is categorized into three large genres, which may be broken down into smaller more specific subgenres. Work and Social Music (which includes Work Songs, Mento Music, and Social Music), Recreational Music, and Ritual and Ceremonial Music. Rastafarianism, although it is a manifestation of ritual music, is given its own section due to the large amount of information available on the subject. Included here are historical analysis of the genres, as well as musical examples. Eight folk songs are included, and four drum patterns. This paper is intended as a resource for music educators, and therefore each song includes a Quick Reference Page, which lists solfege, rhythmic motives, genre of song, and if applicable drum rhythms which may be used to accompany the song. In addition, each song includes specific information regarding appropriate performance practice and suggestions for use in the classroom.

ABSTRACT

This study examines the experiences of five women doctoral students in music education. The goal was to gain insight into the important experiences and concerns they encountered during their studies. While the literature on women in other fields indicates that socialization of women to the academy differs from that of their male counterparts, this concern has yet to be addressed in the field of music education.

Participants, selected to show maximum variation in personal and professional characteristics, were women who had previously taught in K-12 settings and who were enrolled in or recently graduated from a doctoral program in music education in the United States. Data were collected primarily through in-depth interviews and photo elicitation, and were analyzed through both individual case and cross-case analyses.

All of the women initially stated gender was not an issue that influenced their doctoral studies, but analysis showed that they had clearly internalized the socially constructed roles and expectations reflected in society, and that those roles and expectation did, indeed, impact their choices and behaviors prior to and during their doctoral studies. Three facets of gender were important, specifically socially constructed roles and expectations for women in both their families and in their doctoral studies, gender performativity related to the male-centered expectations in academia, and the importance of intersectionality. The participants’ doctoral experiences were contextualized not just by their gender, but also by their race/ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, and age. Analysis supports other researchers’ findings that women doctoral students may have different experiences in their doctoral studies than their male counterparts.

Recommendations for doctoral programs in music education and music teacher educators are provided. This study’s findings suggest further research is needed to investigate the impact of gender balance in doctoral cohort and faculty, amount of teaching experience prior to studies, and educational background or prior research experience on women’s doctoral experiences, as well as the roles of intersectionality and performativity for women in an academic context.

The College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) began holding

national conferences in 1941, and the organization's six divisions have held biennial conferences on alternating years beginning in 1950. The CBDNA Statement of Purpose specifies, "CBDNA is committed to serving as a dynamic hub connecting individuals to communities, ideas and resources." The regional and national conferences are one of the strongest means to that end. This study presents a history and documentation of the events of the College Band Directors National Association Western/Northwestern Divisional Conference held in Reno, Nevada from 1990 to 2016. The events leading up to the first conference are reported. The details of the clinics and concerts are chronicled to provide a foundation for analyses of various trends and threads regarding number and types of ensembles that performed, types and content of clinics presented, trends in repertoire selection, details of featured composers and commissions, and a discussion of gender disparity across all of these facets.

The 14th Army Band of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) occupied a unique role as the longest activated all-female military band unit in the United States. Carrying forth the lineage of the 400th Army Service Forces Band, which was the first of five all-female WAC bands organized during World War II, the ensemble was reconstituted and activated as the 14th Army Band (WAC) on August 16, 1948 at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. After six months of training, the band was relocated first to Fort Lee, Virginia on March 5, 1949, and then to Fort McClellan, Alabama on August 5, 1954.

Operating under the command of twelve female officers and three enlisted band leaders during its history, the 14th Army Band (WAC) performed extensively throughout the United States while simultaneously providing musical support for military and civilian functions at its home duty stations. Able to advantageously promote the novelty of its uniqueness as an all-female ensemble to attain celebrity-like exposure, the band impressed audiences with its high level of musical proficiency, entertaining versatility, and military professionalism.

To document women’s roles as instrumental musicians and to fill gaps in American band and music education histories, this study examines the organizational developments, key leaders, musical training, repertoire, and mission-related activities of the 14th Army Band (WAC) from the time it arrived at Fort Lee in 1949 until its final performance at Fort McClellan on May 14, 1976.

Prior to World War II, females were not permitted to participate in military bands in America. The women of the 14th Army Band (WAC) proved, however, that they were more than capable of fulfilling the Army’s musical mission, and as role models, they paved the way for the participation of all females in American military bands today.