Interludes

Dr. Taurus Hines is the dedicated principal of Rozelle Elementary School in Memphis, Tennessee. He is committed to fostering a nurturing and dynamic educational environment.

Jaclyn Rudderow is the senior director of school programs for Save The Music Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping students, schools, and communities reach their full potential through the power of making music. Rudderow leads the foundation's programmatic work in communities across the country.

Jim Holcomb spent twenty-four years in the classroom, both in Tennessee and Mississippi, as an instrumental and vocal music teacher. For twenty-one years he served as supervisor of music and dance programs for Memphis City Schools. In retirement, Holcomb has remained an active professional musician and performer, as well as a brass instructor at the Bellevue School of Performing Arts in Memphis. Holcomb is the secretary for the Tennessee Arts Academy Foundation Board of Directors.

After thirty years of teaching, David Chambers recently retired from his position as a pre-kindergarten through eighth grade elementary music specialist for Fentress County Schools. He is also the choir director for Allardt Presbyterian Church and the founding director of the Fentress County Community Choir. Chambers has served as a TAA elementary music facilitator since 2005.

Julissa Chapa taught elementary music in the Houston area for twenty years. She earned her master’s degree in music education, received her Kodály Certification from the Kodály Institute of Houston, and trained in Music Learning Theory. She is currently a lecturer and supervisor for student teachers at the University of Houston, teaches summer courses at the Fort Bend Kodály Institute, and regularly presents staff development sessions for districts and conferences across the country. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of Houston, and her research areas are emergent bilinguals in the music classroom and music education accessibility in under-resourced areas. Her ultimate goal is to promote quality music education for all children, upholding Kodály's belief that music is every child’s birthright.

David Dockan is an assistant professor of music education at Louisiana State University where he teaches elementary music methods, courses in teaching music in diverse settings, and where he champions the integration of popular music in the curriculum. His goal is to help teachers design a curriculum that mirrors the diverse musical landscape of their students’ lives. His research has been published in leading journals, including the Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, the Music Educators Journal, and The Orff Echo, focusing on democratic music education, popular music pedagogies, and inclusive music classrooms. In 2022, he collaborated with Dr. Martina Vasil to develop a masterclass on Orff Schulwerk and popular music education. Dockan envisions classrooms where students create music that reflects their diverse experiences and cultural backgrounds.

For more than forty years, Joan Eckroth-Riley has been sharing her passion for music education. She currently serves at Murray State University in Kentucky as associate professor and coordinator of music education. She is the author of Everyday Improvisation: Interactive Lessons for the Music Classroom and Everyday Composition: Interactive Lessons for the Music Classroom, and a contributing author to Kaleidoscope, which contains lessons on the new core music standards. Eckroth-Riley is a certified recorder and movement instructor for Orff Schulwerk teacher training courses, frequent workshop presenter on standards and assessments for elementary music, and musical clinician around the country. She holds a master’s degree in music education with an emphasis in Orff Schulwerk from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was honored to be named the North Dakota Music Educator of the Year in 2016.

Michele Henry is a professor of choral music education and the director of music education at Baylor University. Henry teaches undergraduate music education courses, supervises student teachers, and oversees the music education program. She specializes in vocal sight-reading instruction and assessment. Henry is the co-author of the Level Up! sight-reading series which focuses on a systematic approach to individualized sight-reading instruction and assessment. Her research appears in many top journals, as well as Oxford and GIA presses. Henry is on the editorial boards for the Journal of Music Teacher Education, the Southwestern Musician, and Texas Music Education Research. She is also heavily involved with certification policies for music teachers. She holds a doctorate from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree from the University of North Texas.

Jann Knighten received degrees in music education from East Carolina University, then attended the University of Texas at Austin. She began her career as a teacher of middle school band in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and completed thirty years of public school teaching in 2009. Knighten represented North Carolina as an educational ambassador for the U.S.-Japan Foundation’s Global Schools Initiative at Hiroshima University and Mihara Junior High School. She is currently the coordinator of the graduate certificate in music education for students with differences and disabilities, and a candidate for a doctorate in curriculum and instruction in special education at the University of Arkansas. Knighten has presented at national and international conferences and professional development sessions in many states. She is the president of the Arkansas Music Educators Association and the president-elect for the Council of Exceptional Children’s Division of Visual and Performing Arts.

Alfred Watkins retired as director of bands at Lassiter High School in Marietta, Georgia, where he spent thirty-one of his thirty-seven years in the profession. He is currently musical director and conductor of the Cobb Wind Symphony. He is a graduate of Florida A&M University (FAMU) and received an honorary doctorate from the VanderCook College of Music. Concert bands under Watkins’s leadership have performed at thirty-two invitational concert band events, and he has conducted All-State High School Bands in thirty-four states. His concert bands have performed at the Midwest Clinic, Music for All National Festival, and at the Georgia Music Educators Association conventions. Watkins is a member of the American Bandmasters Association, the FAMU Gallery of Distinguished Alumni, and has been named to the Hall of Fame for the Bands of America, Conn Selmer, and the Minority Band Directors National Association. The $1.5 million band building at Lassiter High School bears his name.

Valerie Branch is the founder and artistic director of VB Dance Ensemble, a professional, contemporary dance company focused on bringing cultural awareness and social change into schools around the nation. Her mission is to use the power of dance as a catalyst to empower children to find value in the impact that their voice can have on their life and the lives of others. Branch graduated magna cum laude from the University of Maryland, College Park with a degree in dance. She has experience touring as a performing artist and dance educator both nationally and internationally and has brought dance into schools throughout the United States, South Africa, India, Singapore, and Grenada. Branch is a Master Teaching Artist with the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts and holds a National Teaching Artist Credential with Young Audiences Arts for Learning. She advocates for teaching artist representation while creating and promoting innovative strategies that will increase the visibility of teaching artists around the nation.

Rebecca Pogue Fields serves as head of elementary school programs at the Alliance Theatre at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where she facilitates the design, administration, and delivery of arts integrated, in-school residency programs in more than three hundred classrooms each year. She also facilitates theatre education programs and teacher training utilizing the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education model. STEAM learning integrates the arts into the traditional STEM curriculum to enhance creativity and critical thinking skills. Fields enjoys training educators at various levels to introduce best practices in arts integration, transform teacher practices, and establish strategic partnerships. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a fine arts degree in dance and received a master’s degree from the University of Kentucky. Fields has previously worked with Young Audiences Arts for Learning and the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta.

Raymond McAnally, a native of Franklin, Tennessee, is an award-winning actor, producer writer, and lecturer. Some of his television credits include Black Mirror: San Junipero, which won an Emmy in 2017. He has had guest starring roles on Better Call Saul, Modern Family, Chicago Fire, and 30 Rock, and his feature film credits include Paradise Highway, The Revival, and Compliance. Theatre credits of note include God's Ear; Casa Valentina; One Man, Two Guvnors; Mrs. Mannerly, and The Foreigner, among many others. McAnally’s solo show, Size Matters, received its world premiere at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, was filmed before a live audience at the Franklin Theatre, and now streams on Amazon Prime. His full-length play, The Cruelty of Children, was a semi-finalist at the O’Neill Center in 2019. McAnally has been a lecturer for Rutgers Arts Online since 2013 and guest lectured at colleges and conservatories since 2009. He holds a degree in acting from Mason Gross School of the Arts and a degree from Sewanee.

Adam Yankowy is a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and is currently an assistant professor of musical theatre at Michigan State University. He holds degrees in musical theatre and music education and has taught in theatre departments at several universities. Selected performance credits include Babes in Toyland (Lincoln Center), The Pirates of Penzance (New York City Center), Swingin’ Christmas (Carnegie Hall), and Broadway’s Rising Stars (Town Hall). He has earned numerous regional theatre awards for both directing and music direction. Yankowy is the current artistic program director for the New Musical Laboratory at Michigan State University, a program that helps shape and support new musicals in their development process. He also is the host of a musical theatre radio program in East Lansing, Michigan. His research centers on the creation of new musicals and the revision of older musicals as new ones. He continues to work as a director, music director, and performer.