Kevin Thomas, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago and raised in Montreal, is a renowned dancer, choreographer, and educator. He’s been performing internationally for a decade, beginning his professional career as a dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal and later becoming a principal dancer with Ballet San Jose and the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Thomas has performed leading roles in numerous ballets, including The Prodigal Son, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Nutcracker. Among other credits, he has appeared with the Royal Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and on Broadway in The Phantom of the Opera. In 2006, Thomas co-founded the Memphis-based company Collage Dance Collective with Marcellus Harper to promote diversity in classical ballet. The organization has quickly grown to boast an international touring professional company and nationally recognized conservatory, training more students of color in a classical art form than any other nonprofit in the region. Collage was recently named a Southern Cultural Treasure by South Arts and the Ford Foundation.
Kevin Thomas, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago and raised in Montreal, is a renowned dancer, choreographer, and educator. He’s been performing internationally for a decade, beginning his professional career as a dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal and later becoming a principal dancer with Ballet San Jose and the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Thomas has performed leading roles in numerous ballets, including The Prodigal Son, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Nutcracker. Among other credits, he has appeared with the Royal Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and on Broadway in The Phantom of the Opera. In 2006, Thomas co-founded the Memphis-based company Collage Dance Collective with Marcellus Harper to promote diversity in classical ballet. The organization has quickly grown to boast an international touring professional company and nationally recognized conservatory, training more students of color in a classical art form than any other nonprofit in the region. Collage was recently named a Southern Cultural Treasure by South Arts and the Ford Foundation.
Josh Drews is an artist and art educator who lives in Columbia, South Carolina, and has been teaching visual art at Spring Valley since 2001. He has assisted in the development of an arts curriculum for South Carolina, including co-authoring the state’s Media Arts standards, and he has written state curriculum guides for media arts and printmaking. Drews serves as the National Art Education Association (NAEA) southeast region vice president, the chair of the NAEA Advocacy Task Force, and is the former president of the South Carolina Art Education Association. He has been recognized as the 2020 NAEA National Secondary Art Educator of the Year, the 2021 Winthrop University Fine Arts Alumni of the Year, and he received the Mac Arthur Goodwin Award in 2022 for his work in visual arts education through the utilization of community arts resources. Drews is also an avid print maker and working artist.
Many educators have been seeking ways to advocate for art education. This session will provide ideas for sharing what is happening in arts classrooms with decision makers and provide ideas for applying classroom leadership practices in new ways.
Ollie Liddell is an active musician, arranger, adjudicator, writer, and clinician for music education, and serves as a mentor to young band directors in Memphis Shelby County Schools. Liddell took over the responsibilities of director of bands at Memphis Central High School and has transformed the band program into an award-winning organization. His bands have earned awards at jazz festivals and competitions throughout the country, including awards for concert band, wind ensemble, jazz band, and marching contests. Liddell has received many individual awards, including being named the 2023 Memphis Shelby County Schools High School Teacher of the Year and a finalist for 2023 Tennessee Teacher of the Year. He received a degree from Jackson State University, and then his master's and PhD from the University of Mississippi.
In this session, the presenter will outline how to start a school jazz band. There will also be suggestions offered on ways to grow an existing school’s jazz band program.
Vincent Oakes serves as artistic director of the Chattanooga Boys Choir, a music education and performance organization which includes more than one hundred and twenty choristers, ages eight through eighteen. He is also the director of choral music and chair of the Fine Arts Department at the Baylor School, an independent college preparatory school in Chattanooga. Oakes has conducted more than one hundred honor choirs, clinics, and choral festivals, including recent honor choirs throughout the United States. Additional recent conducting engagements include the Bangkok International Choral Festival, the VOCALIZZE Choral Festival in Lisbon, Portugal, and a residency with Cámara Exaudi in Havana, Cuba, as a participant in the American Choral Directors Association’s International Conductors Exchange Program. His research interests have led to professional presentations on working with the adolescent singing voice, effective rehearsal pedagogy, and teaching musicianship and music literacy in the choral setting.
In this session, participants explore the principles of healthy vocal production as they are employed in rehearsals with singers of all ages and experience levels. A variety of exercises that reinforce vocal musicianship, ensemble development, and aural skills will be presented. Selecting and preparing repertoire in the general music classroom and choral rehearsal will also be explored.
Julia Heath Reynolds currently serves as assistant professor of music education at Belmont University. Previously, Heath Reynolds taught elementary and secondary general music and music in special education at Indiana State University. She is active in the field of music education and has presented research and workshops at the state, national, and international level. Heath Reynolds has served as the president of the Indiana Music Education Association, and holds degrees, including her PhD in music education, from Florida State University. Her research focus includes music for special learners in primary and secondary schools, music educator training, and nonverbal communication in the music classroom.
Explore the vital connection between literacy and music in this interactive online session. Participants will dive into the impact of literacy on general music instruction and share practical tips, tricks, and strategies for integrating literacy in meaningful ways. The session will also feature an open conversation to exchange ideas and address challenges.
Elaine Bromka has had a long, rich career in film, television, and the theatre.
In film and television her credits include Cindy, the mom in themovie Uncle Buck, and roles in The Sopranos, Sex and the City,E.R., Dharma & Greg, and Law and Order. She has appeared on Broadway and off-Broadway. Bromka has played leads in many theatre productions, in roles ranging from Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing to Shirley
Valentine, which was cited as an outstanding solo performance in New Jersey in 1997 by the Star Ledger. After starring opposite Rich Little in The Presidents, where she portrayed eight first ladies, she went on to co-write the one-woman show Tea for Three: Lady Bird, Pat & Betty. She starred in the show off-Broadway and continues to tour with it nationwide. A member of the Actors Studio and a graduate of Smith College, she has also been on the faculty of Smith College and of the Steinhardt School at New York University. She continues to host, both virtually and live, a variety of one-day acting workshops to more than one hundred and seventy colleges and prep schools.
There are living stories all around us. In this jump-in class, participants will receive prompts from photos and human interest features from newspapers. They will learn to tell those stories on the spot and have a blast doing it!
Lynnette Young Overby is the former director of the Community Engagement Initiative and the founding director of the Partnership for Arts & Culture at the University of Delaware. She also serves as artistic director of the Sharing Our Legacy Dance Theatr and was president of the National Dance Association, the Michigan Dance Council, and the Delaware Dance Education Organization. Overby received the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Dance Education Organization. She is a member of the National Council on the Humanities and was recently inducted into the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship.
In this session, participants will experience the ways that any curriculum can move! No dance experience is needed to creatively embody concepts in science, math, or literature.
Lauralee Chambers has taught kindergarten through fifth grade students for more than twenty-five years as an art educator in the Mt. Pleasant School District in Westchester, New York. Chambers believes that children are born to create, express, and find both comfort and challenge in the arts. She has a passion for collecting ideas and putting things together in unique ways, both in her own art as well as with her students. Chambers has been instrumental in integrating the arts across the curriculum and developing unique programs such as Avenues to Artists, Artists to Authors, Discovery Days, Summer Voyage, and Unified Arts. In 2011, she was the recipient of the Artsonia Leadership Award.
This hands-on interlude will walk participants through the steps of creating a simple zine with learners. Ideas on how these mini-booklets can grow into engaging, meaningful projects will also be provided, all without the need for devices! A zine (short for "magazine") is a mini, self-published booklet that starts with an idea and evolves into a unique medium! Zines encourage creativity, build fine motor skills, and promote exploration and sharing.
Materials needed: Participants will need a sheet of copy paper, a pencil, scissors, and a glue stick. Everything else is up to your imagination!
Lauren Cochran is an art educator with more than a decade of experience serving both kindergarten through twelfth grade public and non-profit arts organizations. Cochran studied printmaking at Auburn University, completed her master’s degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and then earned a doctorate from Carson-Newman University. Presently she is teaching visual arts in the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools as well as running her own side business, Crafternoon with Dr. Cochran, which offers art experiences for all ages.
This engaging and interactive workshop integrates Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) with the creation of self-portraits, inviting students in grades kindergarten through five to explore their identities, foster a sense of belonging, and express themselves through various materials and mediums. Through the use of literature, creative art supplies, and diverse approaches, students will engage in a multi-faceted journey of self-discovery and expression, all while cultivating emotional awareness, empathy, and community building.
Materials needed: Participants will need crayons, markers, colored pencils, paint and brushes, paper, fabric scraps, beads, and other mixed-media materials.
Born and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Garcia received a degree in art education with a concentration in printmaking from Fayetteville State University. She taught in public schools for six years and recently stepped out of the classroom to focus on her children and be a full time artist. Garcia plans to get her master’s degree and go back to teaching.
This session will present an easy and effective way for students to create a multipurpose sketchbook from paper bags or gift bags, reinforcing the teaching standards to recycle and reuse. The paper bags create pockets to store collage materials or reference images. They are also durable with almost any medium, and have a nice, toned background to enhance color and value. The presenter will share a few tutorials that can be used in the classroom, as well as the slideshow used for the interlude.
Materials needed: Large brown paper bag or gift bag with handles (at least 8 by 10 inches or larger). These materials should be something you can get for free at most grocery stores. You can also use a re-used gift bag from a previous holiday or event. Brown lunch paper bags work well too, and you can make about 8-10 sketchbooks from one purchased package. You will also need scissors, glue, and any writing or drawing instruments you wish to use.
About the Middle Tennessee State University Jazz Ensemble
MTSU Jazz Ensemble I is the top performing large ensemble in the jazz studies program at Middle Tennessee State University. It features the most experienced student players, and concentrates on cutting-edge literature, master works from the big band repertoire, and performance of student compositions and arrangements. Members of MTSU Jazz Ensemble I commit to the highest levels of professionalism as individual soloists, section-members, and as contributors to the group sound. This ensemble has toured extensively throughout the mid-Southeast. The ensemble’s annual headline appearance at the MTSU Illinois Jacquet Jazz Festival with an internationally acclaimed jazz artist is a highlight. Recent guests have included Dave Douglas, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Jimmy Heath, Rich Perry, and Tamir Hendelman.
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