The Marriage of Orff and Popular Music Pedagogies
Loyola University New Orleans Music Education Lecture Series
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm; CM204G
Martina Vasil, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Music Education and Director of Graduate Studies for the School of Music at the University of Kentucky. She directs summer music education programming in Modern Band, Orff Schulwerk, and Dalcroze Eurhythmics. Dr. Vasil teaches undergraduate courses in general music methods and modern band and graduate courses in qualitative research. Prior to her appointment at UK, Dr. Vasil taught K–8 general music and 4–8 instrumental music (band and strings) for seven years in Pennsylvania. She has continued to teach music grades PK–6 at Lexington Montessori School since 2018. She has her BM and PhD in music education from West Virginia University and her MM in music education from Eastman School of Music.
Dr. Vasil is past President of the Association for Popular Music Education and continues to serve as a Board member. She was in the first cohort of Higher Education Modern Band Fellows through Music Will in 2018 and started the first All-State Elementary Modern Band for Kentucky (through the Kentucky Music Educators Association). This is the first All-State Modern Band specifically for elementary students (grades 4–6) in the United States. She has presented her research internationally, nationally, and regionally and is a frequent presenter for Orff chapters across the nation. Her primary research interests center on popular music education, Orff Schulwerk, and music teacher education.
In this workshop, Dr. Vasil will examine common threads that unite Orff Schulwerk and Popular Music Pedagogies for today’s music classrooms.